in a garden of spare monohues converts
color
into shape. The sense of colorness is absent. A species of white rhododendron is cross-bred
specifically for this effect. The fact that all this planned purpose is set off to the side in a raked
stoned garden conveys an unmistakable message: the non-color of Illumination turns the sparrowy
hues of being and meaning and figure and wish into not the hues of being, but the tints of
transition.
Seeing what is there is believing what is not: there is no such thing as casual.
All this contemplative void-worship is radically reversed when the book comes to the courtyard
gardens in the townhouses of well-off merchants. Merchants are rarely attracted to the minimal in
any society. In their gardens is not the shunning of delusion but the embrace of decorativeness.
Tasteful, to be sure, but the effect is many elements vying with each other for each its share of
your
attention span. Townhouse gardens seek not to edify or catapult into contemplation, but to relax
and
calm. They transport the intimate beauties of nature into the heart of the home, and thus so the
purpose goes into the dweller. Instead of karuna action taken to diminish the suffering of others
that
is the garden of the temple, the residential garden is ohana sharing undertaken to maximize the
articulation of self.
And it is hard to fault the merchants for their pride. With wealth came the best of Japan's
arts ikebana, scrolls, ceramics, tatami, bamboo furnishing, shoji, lacquered wood, ink brushes, all
those delicious crafts that make the country the subject of so many lovely picture books.
Merchants
do not relinquish with their gardens, they embrace. You begin to see utility objects converted into
decor objects, specifically to be not used water basins, bamboo cups, and, for the first time, tori or
stone lanterns. Costly steppingstones (often in locations where they can't be stepped on) made of
rock imported from distant quarries take the place of the natural indigenous rocks found in temple
gardens. Size or rather oversize for effect becomes a preoccupation, the way the well-to-do
convey
substance with overimage pretty much all over the world (ever see a small luxury car?).
This usually happens with tori lanterns, which sometimes are overdimensioned to twice the size
needed for a well-proportioned garden. Why? The significance of the stone lantern is its
placement.
Where it stands is a balance point between the thicket of the flower and plant and stone and the
sky.
The 'eye' of the lantern ends the garden and begins the sky. Oversizing it draws attention to the
lantern itself rather than the plane at which it divides garden from sky. The intent can only be
drawing attention to an object for the object's sake, which then in turn reflects on the assets of the
owner. It is significant that tori do not occur in the temple and shrine gardens in the book, being
inimical to the temple garden's point.
Domestic devotion usually shows up as ornamentation over abstraction. In townhouse gardens
this
occurs in juxtapositions of the best of Japan's art forms ikebana flower arrangements, tansu,
painted
folding screens, calligraphy on scrolls adjacent to the tsuboniwa. In a temple garden there must be
no distraction from the garden itself. It is hard to escape the notion that in Japan devotionalism
occurs as ornament of surface. There is a shift in attention from emptiness and space to detail and
volume. Absence of significance is not the goal, but rather significance of significance.
Not to say that a townhouse garden can't simplify. In one garden, a single stone lantern amid
seven
large bamboos instantly achieves the irreducible. It is like seeking the perfect poem by arranging
seven words into a shape. The artist Keinen Imao designed his personal garden using the
traditional
elements stone lantern, water basin with bamboo cup for washing the hands, carefully arranged
stones, kutsunugi stone (a special shape from a handful of quarries all over Japan) to sit on while
removing footwear, and two small trees. None of this is remarkable until the sun shines down
through the leaves of the trees, creating a play of leaf- and twig-shaped shadows on the ground.
To
Keinen Imao, the garden was these shadows, not the other objects in view.
Then search his name on the Web and you will see why. He all but lived among the leaves. (See
especially http://www.artelino.com/archive/art_object.asp?evt=2&rel=11 and
http://info.partner.de/kunden/schwaegr.nsf/nav/doc/doster-doc10.htm.
Damp scented air, zephyr, dust of snow, shaft of light: These are the merchant garden's spiritual
refreshment amid the crowded, hyperbolic ekistics of a city, the ekistics of too much thing and too
little time. Morning is brief. Evening is brief. Light is brief. But a tsuboniwa is not brief, even
though
any one gaze may last for only a few moments. It is not brief because it is not of time.
Landscapes for Small Spaces is a masterwork. Consider the physical production before even
opening
the book. It has overwide jacket flaps, reaching almost to the gutter; a generous expanse of space
on
which the jacket flap text floats gracefully. Most dust jacket flaps cram the text so tightly you
can't
help but think of life in a telephone booth. Once inside, although there is no further mention than a
small box on the copyright page, the book is printed in something called Diamond Screening, 'a
technology that enables the reproduction of color artwork and photography which far surpasses
the
quality achieved by traditional printing methods.' Indeed so: the wood floors of the Honen'in
Temple
on pp. 32 33 have been walkworn and waxed to such blackness that the very few reflections
coming
off them are a printer's nightmare: large expanses of incrementally blending blacks and dark grays
are broken by equal expanses of brilliantly whitewashed walls. Yet even at the far end of the halls
in
this double-page spread you can see undulations in the boards that perhaps even the eye might not
notice. There are deep blacks and there are deeper blacks, and this printing process shows them
all.
There are less obvious touches, too, such as the ability of a large-format camera (apparently a 4' x
5'
view camera in some shots) to render images sharper than the same scene seems to the eye.
Kodansha produces books that will still have something to say a century from now, and then, as
now, will say it well. However, this book lacks an important necessity: a bibliography. Here is a
brief
starter biblio if you want to pursue this subject a bit more:
Shigemori Kanto. The Japanese Courtyard Garden. New York: Apollo Books (out of print but
used
to be carried by Weatherhill), ISBN: 0-3175-4981-2.
Yoshikawa Isao. Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces. Tokyo: JOIE/Japan Publications, 1997,
ISBN: 0870409778
Patricia Jonas (Editor), Japanese-Inspired Gardens. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2001, ISBN:
1889538205
Isao Yoshikawa. Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces. Japan Publications, 1997, ISBN:
0870409778
You can also check Amazon.com for current books and alibris.com for out-of-print titles.
Dana De Zoysa
Reviewer
Sullivan's Bookshelf
A New Christianity For A New World: Why Traditional Faith Is Dying & How A New Faith Is
Being Born
John Shelby Spong
Harper: San Francisco
353 Sacramento Street, #500, San Francisco, CA 94111-3653
ISBN # 0060670843(cloth edition), 276 pages/indexed, $24.00, 1-800-272-7737
Retired Episcopal Bishop Spong has written his most controversial book ever. Herein he proposes
a
new Christian religion. It's Christianity minus a theistic God. Yet this author's proposed creed
holds
"that God could no longer be defined personally as a being, but must be approached
nonpersonally
as the Ground of All being."
Christians are here on earth, adds the retired Bishop, to be all that they can be{not dissimilar from
a
recent U.S. Army TV commercial}. And that God is experienced as Life.
Spong also allows for Jesus Christ to be a part of this new religion. However, he, too, must now
be
accepted as nontheistic: no Bible miracle stories, no atonement for our sins death, no baptism, no
virgin birth, no Trinity, no Resurrection, etc. In short, it's a more human Christ, though still divine
and yet the pathway to God.
With the new creed, one could still be called a Christian. Spong sees it as the method toward
knowing God. Yet the author further believes that all creeds come to the same God as does the
new
Christianity.
The author doesn't take credit for the theistic God's demise. That goes back to such people as the
philosopher Nietzche who espoused that God was dead. But even then many knew that the
supernatural acts accredited to God would no longer happen: smiting one's enemies on the field of
battle, changing weather for a picnic, defeating the opposing football or baseball teams, and on
and
on. The time for that has passed some said. Others, including Spong, say those days never were.
All
was nothing but myth.
With the departure of that mythological, security-blanket God, Spong believes we're now
witnessing
individuals panicking in the form of killing others at such places as Columbine High School, the
attack on the Trade Towers in New York City, and all the workplace shootings. The retired
Bishop
also believes that the shrinking memberships in mainline churches and the growing members in
fundamentalist sects are nothing more than frightened people looking for safety in churches that
have hard and fast beliefs in a theistic God.
The author writes, "The work of the ecclesia {Spong's name for the church membership in his
new
Christianity} of the future is to expand the arena of life, to enhance the capacity to love, and to
develop in every person the courage to be, for these are the marks of God's realm, the God who is
beyond the definition of theism. These things are also pointers to a universality of faith and
practice
that will recognize no boundary between Christian and non-Christian, Protestant and Catholic,
true
believer and heretic, conservative and liberal, educated and illiterate, male and female, Caucasion
and person of color, homosexual and heterosexual, for all are creatures in whom the source of
life,
the source of love, and the Ground of Being find expression."
This book is an outgrowth of the William Belden Noble lectures that Bishop Spong delivered at
Harvard. Most of the author's previous books, of which there are many, have been dramatic, but
this
one is truly radical. It is highly recommended reading, regardless of religious orientation or the
lack
thereof.
Mapping Human History: Discovering The Past Through Our Genes
Steve Olson
Houghlin Mifflin Company
ISBN # 06l809l572, 292 pages/indexed, $25.00,
Olson writes of tracing humans' ancestors through use of their mitochrondial DNA, inherited only
from the mother, and the Y Chromosome, inherited from the father. Through use of these genetic
tools, scientists have traced everyone alive today back to one mother, Eve so to speak, and one
father, Adam, so-called. They likely didn't mate with each other. In any case, this man and this
woman lived in Africa where all modern humans, homo sapiens, arose. In short, this author makes
a
convincing case for all humans being related, regardless of physical features or color of skin.
The concept of race, argues this writer, is nonexistent, making racism baseless. In fact, the whole
book is a subtle polemic against the erstwhile idea of race. Olson's thoughts on this subject are
reminiscent of Stephen Jay Gould's. The now deceased, world-famous, paleoanthropologist and
Darwinian, said, with substantial scientific proof to back himself up, that anyone who says there
are
different races in this world is just plain wrong-headed.
Human ancestry in all parts of the globe is tackled in this tome. Olson shows how man and
womankind have migrated out of Africa, on more than one occasion, to populate various parts of
the earth. These human migrations were prompted by growing populations, changing weather and
environment, the development of agriculture, and other dynamic reasons.
Through the whole volume that is intriguing reading, perhaps the final chapter, on Hawaii and its
native people, is illustrative. After Captain Cook arrived there in l778, Hawaiians, generous and
sharing to a faul, were never the same again. Today, half the islanders are of mixed ancestry.
Olson concludes with, "I began this book by calling attention to the different appearances of
human
beings. I conclude it now by calling attention to the opposite. Throughout human history, groups
have wondered how they are related to one another. The study of genetics has now revealed that
we
are all linked: the Bushmen hunting antelope, the mixed-race people of South Africa, the African
Americans descended from slaves, the Samaritans on their mountain stronghold, the Jewish
populations scattered around the world, the Han Chinese a billion strong, the descendants of
European settlers who colonised the New World, the Native Hawaiians who look to a cherished
past. We are members of a single human family, the products of genetic necessity and chance,
borne
ceaselessly into an unknown future."
SHAPING THE FUTURE and BIOTECHNOLOGY were also written by Steve Olson, who has
had articles published in Science and Atlantic Monthly magazines. Once employed by the White
House Office of Science and Technology, he was worked for the National Academy of Sciences
and
the Institute for Genomic Research, too.
Recommended!
Jim Sullivan
Reviewer
Gorden's Bookshelf
Blood Work
Michael Connelly
Warner Books, Inc.
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 0446602620, $7.50, paperback, October 1998, 498 pages
Connelly has a simple open writing style that disappears quickly behind the storyline. He is a
storyteller first and a writer second. With detective mysteries and most other genre novels, the
best
writing is when you lose the printed words and just remember the story. Connelly succeeds in this
task with Blood Work.
McCaleb is an ex-FBI profiler who is about to start his third month since a heart transplant
surgery.
A woman comes aboard his boat and his life changes. Graciela Rivers tells him he has her sister's
heart. She asks him to find her sister's murderer. McCaleb's own heart gave out when he became
too
attached to the victims and survivors of the killers he profiled for the FBI. This time his new heart
tells him he has to follow death again to find the killer. McCaleb follows a twisted web of clues
left
by the killer that only he can see and the local police have missed. The killer has decided to play a
game with the wounded McCaleb with McCaleb's life or living death the ultimate prize.
Blood Work is a well paced and aptly named murder mystery. For a few readers, the mystery
unfolds early but the pace of the story will keep them happy. For the others, Connelly lays out the
clues and with satisfying efficiency works them out. 'Blood Work' is a solid well-told detective
story
that holds its own with the best in the genre.
Icarus
Russel Andrews
Pocket Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 0743451562, $7.99, mass-market edition, July 2002, 547 pages
Andrews starts his story with a slow methodical style. Even the horrific murder at the beginning
of
the story seems sanitized by the way Andrews holds the characters away from the readers. At the
halfway point, Andrews finds his pacing and the story explodes into a solid psychological thriller
and
mystery.
'Icarus' is a story about Jack Keller. At ten, he sees his mother thrown out the window by an
insane
man. Despite the trauma, Jack grows up to become a well balanced man with only a reasonable
fear
of heights. He marries the girl of his dreams. Middle-age looks both normal and beautiful for him
until insanity and murder stalk the people around him. Every step he takes, every clue he follows
ends in death. And every death seems linked to the murder of Jack's mother. Insanity, secrets, and
murder walk hand-in-hand through to the last few pages of the book.
The explosive second half of 'Icarus' holds up to expectations. It pulls the okay, but slow, story
into
a breakneck mystery. Icarus is a satisfying thriller filled with the dark addictions of humanity. The
obsessions that twist and bend are the mystery in this thriller. There is nothing new in 'Icarus' but
the
story trickles out just enough clues so the mystery holds until the end. In spite of the slow start,
'Icarus' is one of the better thriller/mysteries.
A Martian Odyssey & Other Classic Science Fiction Stories
Stanley G. Weinbaum, Jean Marie Stine, editor
Renaissance E Books
P.O. Box 494, Clemmons, North Carolina 27012
ISBN: 1588731219, $4.00, electronic download, Copyright 2002, 187 pages,
www.renebooks.com
Stanley G. Weinbaum is one of the best science fiction writers in the twentieth century. For an
average SF reader of today, Weinbaum's science and style seem a little dated but the stories are
interesting and well written. What makes Weinbuam one of the best is that he was the first. He
was
the first to create truly alien creatures and environments and not just use a re-setting of earthly
creatures in otherworldly roles. Weinbaum's writings span only two years, 1934 through 1935. He
died in '35 from cancer. His illness might be why there is an emphasis on medicine with his stories.
But the cancer never touched the brilliance of his writings.
'A Martian Odyssey,' 'Valley of Dreams,' and 'Tidal Moon' show Weinbaum's ability to create
aliens
and alien environments. E.E. Doc. Smith's 'Lensman' series is arguably the best SF series ever
written. Without Weinbaum's unique creations, it is hard to imagine how Smith's writings would
have changed but they would have. Smith borrowed heavily from the inspiration of the Martian
Tweel and Ganymede's Cree.
'Pygmalion's Spectacles' is an easy romp into the mind and virtual reality. Again, you can see the
effect in the later writings of Theodore Sturgeon and Ray Bradbury.
'The Circle of Zero' delves into time travel through the mind. 'Zero' adds the concept of multiple
timelines to time travel which was followed up so well by Heinlein and even James P. Hogan.
'The Dictator' is a common post World War II story that was written before World War II started.
Because the War overshadowed so many of the SF writings in the later twentieth century, it is
harder to see Weinbaum's influence but it is there.
These six short stories do what great storytelling always does. They make the reader think and
inspire others to explore farther. Anyone who claims to like science fiction or science needs to
read
these stories at least once.
S.A. Gorden, Reviewer
www.paulbunyan.net/users/gsirvio/content.html
Sandra's Bookshelf
Mind To Mind
Rene Warcollier
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge Road, Charlottesville, VA 22902
ISBN: 1-57174-311-1 Soft Cover. 95 pp. $14.95, www.hrpub.com 1-800-766-8009
Hampton Roads Publishing Company has begun to reissue classical metaphysical texts in their
new
series, Studies in Consciousness/Russell Targ Editions. Mind To Mind, originally written by
telepathy researcher Rene Warcollier, is one of the first classics chosen for the series.
Ingo Swann has written a new preface for this edition, noting that while Warcollier's 1948 book is
still valid, "it is useful to partially reset Warcollier's seminal work into a larger, and now more
inclusive, historical overview." For one thing, little was known in Warcollier's time about psychic
phenomena. Additionally, Warcollier's pioneering research has withstood the test of time.
Contemporary physicist and psychic researcher Russell Targ, along with Jane Katra, Ph.D., wrote
an
interpretive introduction, which describes current investigations into remote viewing, distant
healing,
prayer, and self inquiry. They "conclude that the scientific and spiritual implications of psychic
abilities are evident in the continually unfolding mystery of the space-time in which we live."
The remainder of the book details Warcollier's meticulous experiments, which provided
"impressive
scientific evidence for the untapped power of human consciousness." He was a chemical engineer,
who became interested in telepathy after studying psychology. He sought to answer questions
about
what information is actually transmitted during telepathy, how it's transmitted, and its relation to
the
unconscious. He eventually collaborated with researchers worldwide, including the United
States.
Mind To Mind is an excellent resource for all readers interested in understanding the foundation
and
background of research into telepathic phenomena and human consciousness.
The Healthy Living Space
Richard Leviton
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge Road, Charlottesville, VA 22902
ISBN: 1-57174-209-3 Soft Cover $18.95, www.hrpub.com 1-800-766-8009
Far more common household and personal care products contain toxic substances than many of
us
realize. Those toxins affect our bodies and may lead to serious illness. At the least, they can
reduce
the quality of life by making us feel less than vibrant and healthy.
Richard Leviton is a health journalist and author with more than twenty-five years experience. The
Healthy Living Space is his eighth book.
In it, he offers "70 practical steps on how to use safe, proven, nontoxic, self-care methods drawn
from the fields of natural and alternative medicine." Leviton not only explains how to detoxify, he
also explains why. He also emphasizes that it's important to detoxify both home and body, as the
poisons accumulated in both can make you sick.
He begins with an eye-opening inventory of substances most of us are exposed to every day. He
then
describes some of the health symptoms people suffer. Many of these symptoms can be vague or
subtle, leading health-care professionals to either mis- diagnose or label sufferers as
hypochondriacs.
Instead they need to be treated as early-warning signals of what may become severe health
problems.
Leviton says "the truth is that we are being slowly poisoned, because although the toxins are
potent,
we are rarely exposed to a lethal or even sub- lethal, but dangerous, dose. We are instead
routinely
exposed to very small doses of many toxic chemicals, which together overwhelm our body's
natural
detoxification system." He says the key is to recognize that toxicity is occurring so slowly that
most
of us don't realize it until too late.
Because few of us can entirely avoid all toxic substances, Leviton explains how we can reduce our
exposure, while at the same time strengthening our body's ability to resist damage from the
elements
we are exposed to. He includes chapters on emotional and spiritual detoxification as well as
extensive information on physical detoxification. The chapters on detoxifying homes describe how
to
remove common pollutants, as well as utilize the more esoteric techniques like feng shui.
Whether we realize it or not, all of us know what it feels like to live in a toxic environment. The
Healthy Living Space provides readers with the practical information and tools they need to create
healthy bodies and homes.
Moments Of Grace
Neale Donald Walsch
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge Road, Charlottesville, VA 22902
ISBN: 1-57174-303-0 Hard Cover. 201 pp. $22.95, www.hrpub.com 1-800-766-8009
Known world-wide for the Conversations with God trilogy, Neale Donald Walsch is back with his
eighteenth book, Moments Of Grace. Walsch says moments of grace occur "when God intervenes
in
our lives in very real, very direct, and very visible ways." The intervention usually results in
individuals changing the course of their lives. His book is filled with real-life accounts of such
moments.
Walsch asked people who'd had direct, life- changing experiences with God to contact him. He
received an outpouring of stories, from which he selected more than twenty to offer as proof of
God's existence. Each story is interwoven with commentaries and reflections based on the rich
material in his earlier books. He says that his experiences and those of the people who've sent
stories
to him teaches us "that God talks to all of us, all of the time."
Walsch emphasizes that his purpose is not in forcing anyone to believe a particular thing, but
rather
to simply encourage people to share their experiences and stories. His goal is to have people "tell
each other our innermost truth about God, about ourselves, about spirituality, about life, and
about
all the higher callings of life." In this way, we can answer for ourselves the important questions
about our relationships to the Divine and to each other. He says we don't know far more than we
do
know, and it's only through openness and the sharing of our experiences that we can find answers
that many of us seek.
Miracles occur every day in every life. Moments Of Grace is designed to help individuals discover
those miracles in their own lives. Readers will find themselves accepting the challenge of
increasing
their "openness to new ideas, to new possibilities, and to new ways of understanding each other
and
God--and God's many gifts."
Human Personality And Its Survival Of Bodily Death
F.W.H. Myers
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge Road, Charlottesville, VA 22902
ISBN: 1-57174-238-7 Soft Cover. 352 pp. $16.95, www.hrpub.com 1-800-766-8009
In the 1890's, when F.W.H. Myers wrote Human Personality And Its Survival Of Bodily Death,
people didn't believe they necessarily had souls, much less that the soul would survive their death.
After Myers experienced communication with his deceased wife, he set out to prove his
contemporaries wrong.
Myers was a scholar who became a scientist when he began investigating paranormal phenomena.
He conducted research and experiments in a variety of fields, including personality disintegration,
genius, sleep, hypnosis, and trances. His goal was to "break down that artificial wall between
science
and superstition." He believed that questions of the soul should be subjected to the same open
mind
and critical analysis used in other scientific inquiries.
His landmark investigations set the standards for subsequent research into human consciousness.
In
his interpretive introduction to the book, Jeffrey Mishlove says that Myers's "classic synthesis of
nineteenth century field research [is regarded] as the most important single work in the history of
psychical research." He adds that it is still "fresh, vigorous, and contemporary."
Like many of the classic metaphysical texts, Myers's book has been out of print for years.
Hampton
Roads Publishing Company has begun to reissue the classical texts in their new series, Studies in
Consciousness/Russell Targ Editions. Their current edition of Myers's book is an abridgement of
the
original, "prepared to make its major content more readily accessible to the modern reader."
Human Personality And Its Survival Of Bodily Death documents Myers's extensive experiments
and
conclusions that personality does, in fact, continue after death. Readers will discover that he
achieved his goal of proving that the human personality is not limited to material life.
Mystics, Masters, Saints, And Sages: Stories Of Enlightenment
Robert Ullman and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman
Conari Press
2550 Ninth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
ISBN: 1-57324-507-0 Soft Cover. 286 pp. $16.95, www.conari.com 1-800-685-9595
Robert Ullman and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman are naturopathic and homeopathic physicians who
have also studied with numerous spiritual teachers. Mystics, Masters, Saints, And Sages: Stories
Of
Enlightenment is their seventh book, in which their "intent is to capture the experience of
enlightenment as clearly and succinctly as possible."
While recognizing that each individual's experience will be unique, the Ullmans believe that the
stories of others will serve as models or signposts for those who are still seeking. They emphasize
that "no one religion, country, socioeconomic class, or gender has laid special claim to
enlightenment." They've chosen a diverse collection of stories, ranging from Buddha to St.
Catherine
of Siena to Suzanne Segal. A total of thirty-three stories are told.
Each story focuses on the moment of transformation in each individual's life. The Ullmans include
a
brief informational essay, describing the culture and times the individual lived in and his or her
teachings. The enlightenment stories themselves are in the words of the masters themselves
whenever possible; or from those closest to them.
An extensive bibliography provides a variety of sources for readers wishing to delve further into
the
lives and times of the individuals.
Although every enlightenment experience is different, the authors describe the common elements
they discovered. These include interconnectedness and ego transcendence, timelessness and
spaciousness, acceptance, beyond pleasure and pain, clarity, and shattering of preconceived
notions.
In his foreword, His Holiness The Dalai Lama says "each human being has an equal opportunity
to
attain wisdom, happiness, and enlightenment by cultivating a correct motivation--a sincere
aspiration
to benefit all sentient beings--and engaging in diligent practice." He adds that Mystics, Masters,
Saints, And Sages "is a valuable, inspiring book." It belongs in the library of all readers seeking
spiritual insight.
Nothing Left Unsaid: Words To Help You And Your Loved Ones Through The Hardest
Times
Carol Orsborn
Conari Press
2550 Ninth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
ISBN: 1-57324-565-8. Hard Cover. 129 pp. $15.95, www.conari.com 1-800-685 9595
Carol Orsborn wrote Nothing Left Unsaid: Words To Help You And Your Loved Ones Through
The Hardest Times to help people nurture their relationships while there is still time. She "focuses
on
the experience of being with someone who is sick or dying, and encourages the reader to move to
a
new level of connection and relationship with the one they love." Orsborn wrote it following her
own experience with a personal health crisis and after a vigil with her critically-ill father.
A master teacher and theologian, Orsborn has written ten other books applying spiritual
philosophy
to the challenges of life.
She begins with a collection of inspirational readings, prayers, and affirmations from a variety of
cultures and traditions. Brief essays from her personal experiences follow each of these, along
with
suggestions as to how individuals may incorporate them in their own lives.
Following that is a section of "Rituals for Healing and Resolution." Orsborn includes several
techniques for releasing negative feelings such as guilt and grief. She also describes a forgiveness
meditation and several methods of effective communication.
The final section is designed to help with introspection. It contains questions which the individual
may use for journaling, or to initiate conversations with loved ones.
Orsborn's desire is that her words will "help you to grow your love and minimize your regret,
come
what may." In Nothing Left Unsaid, she's provided a compassionate and inspirational guide for
anyone who is struggling with trying to find the right words to say at difficult times.
The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices From Around The World
Maggie Oman Shannon
Conari Press
2550 Ninth Street, Berkeley, CA
ISBN: 1-57324-571-2 Soft Cover. 249 pp. $15.95, www.conari.com 1-800-685-9595
Prayer may take many forms and be for an infinite variety of reasons. In The Way We Pray:
Prayer
Practices From Around The World, Maggie Oman Shannon provides a "compendium of prayer
practices with enough context to acknowledge the cultural traditions behind them, while offering
an
invitation for further exploration."
Oman Shannon is a spiritual director, and founder of The New Story, an organization that helps
people discover the deeper purpose to their lives. She's also a writer and editor, with a previous
anthology of healing prayers to her credit.
Although many of us think of being on our knees with hands folded in front of us as the way to
pray,
practices as diverse as fasting, haiku, meditation, storytelling, and visual arts can all be a way of
prayer. Oman Shannon quotes Catherine of Siena with the thought that "everything you do can be
a
prayer." What you physically do is of less importance than your sacred intentions. She says that
prayer can become the "enfolding fabric in which we live our lives, and everything we do has the
potential to be prayerful."
She describes over fifty ways of offering prayer. Each description details how that practice
developed and how it has been used throughout time. Then Oman Shannon provides suggestions
of
how each method can be used in contemporary times, for contemporary difficulties. Each
description
is finished with a section containing several suggestions as to how individuals can explore that
particular means of prayer to determine if it's something they can use.
An extensive resource section is provided to assist readers who want to investigate a particular
practice in more depth.
Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, has this to say in the Foreword: "The Way We Pray offers
us
a treasury of integrating spiritual practices [and] they all have the power to open us up to a deeper
and more generous reality." Readers will find the Oman Shannon has provided an invaluable
resource for discovering the power of prayer in the way best suited to meet their needs.
Sandra I. Smith
Reviewer
Harold's Bookshelf
Kinoetics: Signs Of Conflict: Our Personal Body Language
William Linson, M.D.
Kinoetics Publishing
PO Box 3057, Ketchum, ID 83340
0970073909 $24.95, Pages: 215
Kinoetics: Signs Of Conflict provides a unique and close examination of one specific aspect of
body
language. While other books concentrate on such things as the way one crosses their legs, leans
forward, etc., "Kinoetics" concentrates on the meaning of self-referential touch. What does it
mean
when we touch ourselves by placing our hands over our face, pulling at the corner of the eye or
corner of the mouth, etc. The premise of the book is that "conflict typically has an associated
physical response, and it is often accompanied by self-referential touching... which symbolically
manifests what one is thinking and feeling". What does this mean? When we are experiencing
internal conflict we often make self-referential actions, which reveal those internal conflicts.
William
Linson takes the reader on a very detailed journey through self-referential touch and the specific
conflicts each of them symbolize. A fascinating read, I find myself using the information regularly
as
I deal with others. Highly recommended.
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation
Olivia Judson
Metropolitan Books
115 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011
0805063315 $24.00, Pages: 234 plus Notes, Bibliography and Index
Unable to read through the book in one setting, I found myself desperately trying to find ways to
get
back to it as soon as possible. Who would have thought that you could take the subject of sexual
reproduction and evolutionary biology and made it into such a thoroughly entertaining read? The
author chose an advice column format with letters supposedly from crickets, stick bugs,
stickleback
fish and dozens of other creatures asking advice about their sexual situation. Needless to say most
of
it is fascinating and highly unnatural - for a human that is, but perfectly normal for them. Some of
the situations she describes are so bizarre as to be beyond what one would expect from even the
best
science-fiction writers. Olivia Judson is to be applauded for writing an educational book that is so
thoroughly entertaining that it does not seem like you are actually being taught in the process. But
you will learn and you will walk away with a completely different view of nature and
reproduction. I
was so thoroughly fascinated with the book that all I can say at this point is "Encore,
encore".
Effective Business And Nonfiction Writing, 2nd Edition
Jan Yager
Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc.
1127 High Ridge Road, PMB 110, Stamford, CT 06905-1203
1889262331 $30.95, Pages: 176
No matter whether you need to write a business letter, report, proposal, procedures manual,
nonfiction book, or simple e-mail we all write on a regular basis. Why not make your writing the
best it can be? Why not make it the most readable and easily understood writing that you can?
This
book will help you to do just that. In Effective Business And Nonfiction Writing Jan Yager shares
her experience and knowledge gathered through years of teaching writing at the collegiate level as
well as writing several successful books. The book is very thorough and includes information on
evaluating your current skill level, steps to effective business or nonfiction writing, overcoming
writer's block, style, getting published, time management and other areas. At the end of each
chapter
you can further your knowledge in that area by utilizing the exercises, references and additional
resources listed there. Easy to read, easy to understand, and well written using the same principles
put forward in the book it is a highly recommended read that is sure to improve anyone's
communication skills.
Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide To Secrets And Lies
Russ Kick (Editor), Richard Metzger (Preface)
The Disinformation Company, Ltd.
163 Third Avenue, Suite 108, New York, NY 10003
0971394202 $24.95, Pages: 287 plus 50 pages of appendixes
Have you ever wondered if the media is telling you the complete story? Have you ever wondered
if
there is another side to the stories that is just plain not being told? Is it possible that everything
you
are being taught is not necessarily true but is instead just the position that the government, media
or
other group wants you to believe? If you have then you owe it to yourself to read this book. Just
a
couple of examples from the book include the current situation with Mad Cow disease in
America,
the fact that violence involving young people is at it's lowest level in over 30 years (despite the
impression you get from the news), how French authorities kidnapped a girl in California and took
her to France. Other areas include nuclear safety, globalization, serial killers, the Vatican Bank,
Olympic Games, the Columbine murders and many others. While at times the book seems like a
series of articles from a "conspiracy theory" group, it has the advantage of each article being
contributed by an authority in that field. The authorities include everything from investigative
journalists to researchers to commentators and academic authorities. Each article includes
well-documented evidence to backup all claims. If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to learn the
alternative possibilities and explanations that are out there, most of which are at least as plausible
and sometimes more so than the "official" or "accepted" version. A fascinating read that opens the
mind, answers many questions and at times creates more questions than it answers. Fun and
irreverent, sometimes politically left, sometimes politically right, it is a recommended read.
Transformational Change
Thomas K. Wentz
Corporate Performance Systems, Inc.
5001 Pine Creek Drive, Westerville, OH 43081
0966843509 $22.95, Pages: 265
Transformational Change addresses the problem of how to deal with change when moving from a
mass production oriented business to a customer centered customized production business. One
of
the truly unique perspectives of this book is that it discusses and details the process of such a
change. Many similar books effectively argue the need for change but then provide no direction
on
how to make the change. Thomas Wentz' book provides detailed discussion and processes for
creating that complete transformation of your business In the past most businesses were based on
a
mass production focus. Success and management were evaluated on a numbers basis. How much
has
sales increased? How many items were produced during this period last year? This numbers
orientation tends to cause people to work hard to meet the numbers as their primary focus. In this
scenario employees typically don't go beyond what is expected of them. There is no motivation to
create a unique world-class organization. Add to that the fact that times have changed and
customers now require a solution or product that is customized to their specific needs. If you can't
provide a customized solution or product then they will simply go to a competitor that can. Is this
just another business direction change? Thomas Wentz argues that it is more than just a
directional
change, it requires a complete transformation of the business from one form to another completely
different form. A nice extra to the book are the numerous "Key points" scattered throughout the
text. By summarizing the prior information in just one or two sentences and making it stand out
from the text it is easy to quickly read over the key points of the book and refresh your memory
on
an ongoing basis. An excellent book on business and change that also has some applicability to
personal change, it is a recommended read.
World Trivia: The Book Of Fascinating Facts: Culture, Politics And Geography
Michael Scott Smith, Cash Donovan (Illustrator)
East West Discovery Press
PO Box 2393, Gardena, CA 90247
0966943708 $9.95, Pages: 262
World Trivia is a small book filled with trivia questions from around the world. Each page has a
single question with the answer on the reverse. It contains an excellent selection of questions that
I
found genuinely interesting, however, with only one question on a page it contains only just over
130 questions. It would have been nice if there were two or three questions per page. There are
very
few trivia books that have the nerve to ask questions on culture and politics because they change
so
quickly in some parts of the world. That is the situation here, some of the questions and answers
are
outdated because of the rapid political and cultural changes in the Middle East. It still makes an
interesting read and is a great book to leave lying around for company to pick up and leaf
through.
Multiple Streams Of Internet Income
Robert G. Allen
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
605 Third Ave., New York, NY 10158-0012
047121888X $16.95, Pages: 288
In Multiple Streams Of Internet Income Allen points the way to using the Internet as a vehicle for
attracting wealth and the personal freedom that comes with wealth. The book covers marketing
fundamentals as well as how to apply those principles to the special needs and opportunities of the
Internet. In addition, it covers specific opportunities and techniques unique to the Internet and
how
to use them to make money. (For example, selling links and web-site affiliations). And, of course,
it
covers more traditional manners of generating income such as advertising, auctions, niche
marketing, etc. One of the best things about the book is the detail with which he goes over the
process from beginning to end and all of the options in between. This produces a repeatable
framework that anyone can use to follow Robert Allen's footsteps. The bottom line is that the
Internet is probably the fastest and easiest method for making a lot of money in the current
economy. Following the principles and techniques set forth in Multiple Streams Of Internet
Income
the average person should be able to create sources of recurring online income. Recommended for
those wishing to pursue using the internet as a source of either primary or secondary income.
Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident And Courageous Daughters
JoAnn Deak, Teresa Barker (Contributor)
Hyperion Press
77W. 66th Street, New York, NY 10023-6298
078686768X $23.95, Pages: 287
Enlightening, provocative and powerful, this is perhaps the most useful book on raising daughters
that I have ever read. In the book Deak covers the problems, confusion, motivations and fears
that
are all a normal part of growing up female. But more than just noting that they exist and their
basis,
she also provides practical advice on how to deal with the problems in a proactive and productive
manner. The book follows the expected logical pattern of moving from the basics of perspective
through the normal growing up process. First are the formative years, then preadolescent, then
adolescent years. Of special interest, she includes chapters on the special relationship between
daughters and their mother as well as one on the relationship between daughters and their father
and
one of dealing with the normal fears and worries of being parents. Each chapter has comments
from
girls at that age or referring to the subject of the chapter as well as the defining or "crucible"
events
that occur during that age or relationship. If there were one book that I would recommend to
anyone raising a girl in today's world, this would be the one that I would recommend. It stands
like a
lighthouse warning parents of dangerous shoals and how to avoid them as well as offering
guidance
on how to help their daughters negotiate dangerous waters and come out safe. This book truly
lives
up to the title and empowers parents with the tools to mold young girls into confident,
courageous
and well-adjusted adult women.
Surrendering To Marriage: Husbands, Wives, And Other Imperfections
Iris Krasnow
Hyperion
77 W. 66th Street, New York, NY 10023-6298
0786887710 $13.00, Pages: 235
In Surrendering To Marriage Iris Krasnow openly exposes an aspect of marriage that is generally
not discussed - that the perfect marriage includes problems. With divorce so easy to come by and
people entering into marriage with the concept that if it does not work then they can just get a
divorce, it is refreshing to find someone who openly discusses the realities of marriage. Marriage
requires committment, work and real personal growth as well as concession and recognition that
people come into a marriage with their problems and quirks. Drop the expectations of perfection
and
come to surrender to the fact that all marriages have problems. The grass is not greener on the
other
side. When you divorce and enter into a new marriage you bring the same you into the new
marriage. The measuring stick of the perfect marriage is not that it has no problems but how the
couple deals with their problems. This does not mean that all marriages can be or should be
salvaged. There are situations such as abuse or life-threatening situations that may require a much
more drastic course of action. While the author is full-force in favor of working through problems
in
a marriage, she does recognize that some situations require drastic action for your own
protection.
Full of actual interviews and real life situations, the book is insightful and to the point. Not only
does
it discuss the real life problems of marriage, but also the real life effect of radical actions such an
extra-marital affair. Did it harm the marriage? Did it provide the excitement sought? Did it really
provide a solution or even more problems? No sugar-coating of the truth here, just the cold, hard
facts. While it is true that some marriages have more problems than others, Iris Krasnow's
discussion
of the realities of married life should be read by everyone contemplating marriage or married
people
contemplating a radical action. A highly recommended common sense, reality based book.
The Ultimate Sales Letter
Dan S. Kennedy
Adams Media Corporation
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322
1580622577 $10.95, Pages: 187 plus index
Although designed primarily for the direct-mail market, the principles and techniques of The
Ultimate Sales Letter : Boost Your Sales With Powerful Sales Letters, Based On Madison
Avenue
Techniques can be adapted and applied to a wide variety of situations. Kennedy covers all the
important topics and techniques on how to write the letter so that it not only gets opened but read
and acted on. One of the most common mistakes a poor salesman makes is trying to sell a product
based on features. This is totally ineffective when compared to selling based on the benefits the
product will provide the customer. Kennedy does an excellent job of demonstrating the difference
and how to write a sales letter that focuses on the benefits to a customer. The result is a highly
effective letter. Add to this the tricks of the trade, writing style, revision information and
multitude
of other tips that fill the book and you have one of the best books on writing sales letters that I
have
ever read. Well organized, well written, and easily understood, Kennedy takes you through a
complete and repeateable process from concept to followup to sale that does not miss a beat. If
you
want a sales letter that can produce leads and then convert the leads to sales there is no better
book
on the market today.
The Fast Track Course On How To Write A Nonfiction Book Proposal
Stephen Blake Mettee
Word Dancer Press
1831 Industrial Way, #101, Sanger, CA 93657
188495622X $12.95, Pages: 128
A query letter and book proposal is the best place to start when considering writing a nonfiction
book. Using the query letter and book proposal you can locate a publisher interested in printing
your
book before you spend all that time writing it. The purpose of a proposal is to give a very busy
editor enough information to determine if they have an interest in the book and to have at least a
basic level of confidence in you as an author. In his book Mettee gives many detailed examples of
what should be included in the proposal and well as example proposals and queries. In addition he
covers contracts, agents, royalties and other factors that you will need to understand. Finally, he
includes the very important information of what should not be in the proposal. In How To Write
A
Nonfiction Book Proposal you receive a complete guide to writing a professional proposal that
greatly increases the chances of getting your book published. A highly recommended read and a
required read for any new nonfiction writer.
Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?
Marc McCutcheon
Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press
1831 Industrial Way #101, Sanger, CA 93657
1884956173 $14.95, Pages: 256
The common conception about writing as a career is that it is difficult to get into and produces
many
"starving" artists. While this may be true in many situations, In Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?
How Ordinary People Are Raking In $100,000.00...or More Writing Nonfiction Books & How
You
Can Too!, Marc McCutcheon argues convincingly that it is not necessarily the case when it comes
to
nonfiction writing. According to the author over 50,000 new books are published each year, but
only about 3,500 of them are fiction. As a result, most of the competition is in the fiction area.
The
nonfiction area is by far the easiest one in which to become published. The author relates how
even a
beginning writer can learn to write nonfiction and start making a living as a writer much faster
than
commonly believed. The book is filled with the necessary details of not only writing a great
nonfiction work but also how to handle contract negotiations, why you need (or don't need) an
agent, writing proposals, marketing and just about any other subject that the writer may need to
know. Throughout the book, McCutcheon encourages the new writer and points out that many
top
selling titles were written by ordinary people without any special writing skills or training. A book
that should be on the bookshelf of all writers, I can't recommend it highly enough.
Beautiful Moments In The Wild: Animals And Their Colors
Editor: Stephanie Maze
Moonstone Press
7820 Oracle Place, Potomac, Maryland 20854
097077687X $15.00, Pages: 32
Beautiful Moments In The Wild is a pre-school level book filled with beautiful animal
photography.
Sure to keep a child's interest as the full color plates fill each page, each animal is included
because
of it's particular color or range of colors. Solidly bound to put up with the stress of being handled
by
children, it is sure to be a favorite. A highly recommended pre-school book.
Tender Moments In The Wild: Animals And Their Babies
Editor: Stephanie Maze
Moonstone Press
7820 Oracle Place, Potomac, Maryland 20854
0970776802 $15.00, Pages: 32
Beautiful, captivating photography makes this one of the best pre-school picture books that I have
had the pleasure to review. Instantly appealing it celebrates the bond of affection between a parent
and child. Solidly bound to put up with the abuse that it is sure to receive as childred carry it
around
to have mommy or daddy read it to them one more time, it is a highly recommended
purchase.
Harold McFarland
Reviewer
Skea's Bookshelf
BRICK 69: A Literary Journal. Spring 2002
Ondaatje, Redhill. Spalding, editors
Macmillan
ISBN: 0968755534 PRICE: A$20.00 (paperback) 184 pages
My first impression of this journal was that it was produced by a group of people who had a nice
sense of humour. "Subscribe...or it's fricasee time for Bugs", announces a half-page
advertisement:
'Bugs' being a lop-eared rabbit charmingly sketched by Mary Meigs, an artist who is relearning her
drawing skills after suffering a stroke. And Margaret Atwood, who has contributed a cartoon to
this
edition, is listed amongst "The Usual Suspects" as their regular cartoonist: "She is also a writer",
it
says.
My second impression, after reading Mark Abley's piece about the Boro language, (which has
such
very useful verbs as "gobray: to fall in a well unknowingly": as distinguished from "gobram: to
shout
in ones sleep"), was to wonder why I had never heard of this journal before. This is, after all issue
69
of a bi-annual journal. It is published in Toronto, Canada, which is still a long way from Sydney,
Australia (in all sorts of ways). No doubt that's why.
My final impression, having read all the articles, is that this is a very literary, literate and
avant-garde
journal which presents a variety of views on a wide range of subjects. Sadly, I fear that it will find
only a small, probably academic, readership in Australia, especially since one or two of the articles
require some familiarity with the Canadian literary scene.
Nevertheless, there is good reading here. The journal is devoted to non-fiction topics and this
issue
includes interviews with W.G. Sebald and Charles Johnson; an extract from a conversation
between
Michael Ondaatje and film editor, Walter Murch (from a recently published book); a discussion
about ultra-modern poetry, sound poetry and virtual poetry between two Canadian poets,
Christian
B”k (whose recent book, Eunoia, is the fastest-selling book in Canadian history and tells a story
in
five chapters using only one vowel per chapter) and Darren Wershler-Henry (whose book, the
tapeworm foundry, is a single run-on sentence proposing ideas that a writer might use for
inspiration); an article about travel, politics and culture in Pakistan in 1988 and 1990; a piece
about
Stendhal's methods in his Life of Henry Brulard; poetry, pictures, and much much more.
Anyone seriously interested in modern literature, its practitioners and its current practice, will find
this journal well-written, thought-provoking and challenging.
Timepieces
Drusilla Modjeska
MacMillan
ISBN: 0330363727 PRICE: A$22.00 (paperback) 229 pages
"There was once a tradition that when a cabinet maker finished his apprenticeship, he'd make a
miniature chest, or cabinet, as a gift for his master."
So, begins Drusilla Modjeska in her introduction to this small collection of her essays. But
although
the idea for this book was conceived with this pattern in mind, Modjeska soon found that the art
of
writing did not lend itself to imitation in miniature. For one thing, her "masters" were too many
and
too diverse, ranging from Christina Stead, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Eleanor Dark and
Dorothy Green, to editors like George Munster and Hillary McPhee. So, what was planned as a
simple collection of pieces drawn from a career in writing, turned into a re-assessment and
re-interpretation of some of those pieces. "There's a lot I'd say now that I wouldn't say then"
Modjeska notes, and she chose these pieces accordingly, changing some and adding to
others.
As always, her writing is a pleasure to read. Most of the essays in the book are diverse and
interesting: a mixture of memoir, literary criticism, biography, autobiography, art appreciation,
and
comment on the Australian literary scene seasoned with a little politics. The final two essays in the
book, however, are much more serious and challenging. They are more densely argued, very
much
more political and controversial, and they are suited more to the arena of academic literary debate
that to a general readership. This is not criticism. Rather, it is a warning to those who might
expect
to read all of this book as they did Poppy or The Orchard, neither of which were predictable,
straightforward narratives, but both of which were works of imagination with no overt reference
to
current Australian politics or literary issues.
'Memoir Australia' and 'The Present in Fiction' , however, deal with issues such as Prime Minister,
John Howard's, refusal to apologize to the Aboriginal people of Australia, and his handling of
immigration issues. They also deal with the relationship between fiction and fact, meaning and life.
Big issues, with serious implications, discussed from a very Australian perspective. Interesting,
but
not easy reading.
In the end, those who already know Modjeska's work will enjoy these essays as much for her
usual
skill in sharing her enthusiasm for literature and art as for the more personal and passionate views
she expresses about the country in which she chooses to live and work. Newcomers to her work
will
appreciate her intelligent and forthright approach and may well be inspired to read more of her
work.
Henry VIII: King And Court
Alison Weir
Pimlico, Random House
ISBN: 0712664513 PRICE: A$28.00 (paperback) 639 pages
Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345436598, $28.00, 608 pages
It is hard to improve on Alison Weir's own Introduction. "My aim", she writes, "has been to draw
together a multitude of strands of research in order to develop a picture of the real Henry VIII, his
personal life throughout his reign, the court he created and the people who influenced and served
him."
This she does admirably, providing detailed information about every aspect of Henry's daily life,
from the time he rose and was dressed each morning, through his various courtly and
administrative
routines, his work and his play, his loves and his hates, to the time (midnight) when he retired to
his
bed of estate and thence to his privy chamber for the night.
Working from original documents and other contemporary sources, Alison Weir assembles a
picture
of the court, the times, the man, and some of those around him. Henry appears as very human:
neither wholly god-like not wholly a monster but certainly both at different times of his life. His
marriages are dealt with briefly and factually (Weir has written about them in detail in an earlier
book), so too is his relationship with his Cardinals and with other important figures.
With so much material to handle and such an eventful life to cover, this book (thick as it is) is
deliberately narrow in its focus. The political history of Henry's reign is outside its scope. So too,
is
the broader context of events in Europe, without a knowledge of which many of Henry's most
important decisions appear arbitrary and self-orientated. Nevertheless, Alison Weir has done a
superb job of bringing to life a remote period of history in an interesting and accessible way. Not
for
her is the journalistic, simplistic presentation of unproven "facts", such as was seen in the recent
TV
series on Henry's wives. She examines some of the most contentious aspects of Henry's life, and
she
offers informed, documented and careful opinions.
Inevitably, much of the book will already be familiar to those who are interested in Henry's reign,
but
there is still much that is of interest and much to be learned about Henry's life and his court which
has not been brought together in this way before.
The Snow Geese
William Fiennes
Picador, PanMacmillan
ISBN: 0330375784 PRICE: A$40.00 (hardback) 250 pages
Random House
ISBN: 0375507299, $24.95, 288 pages
'This guy's come from England to watch geese,' Ken said. 'Is that so?' Jack replied absently,
smoothing his hair back, gazing out over the lake and flat fields. 'He's going to follow them from
Eagle Lake to Canada, Hudson Bay, maybe even the Arctic Ocean.' 'Each to his own,' said Jack.
'He
just flew in. Hasn't ever seen a snow goose.' ' Is that right? Sometimes I wish I'd never seen a
snow
goose.'
William Fiennes passion for snow geese began by accident. Convalescing from an unexpected and
frightening illness, he found a familiar book amongst the pristine volumes in the pseudo library of
his
hotel - The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. Outside the hotel, professional women golfers with
"tanned calves [that] resembled fresh tench attached to the backs of their shins" practised their
golf
strokes: inside, Fiennes lost himself in this book. It haunted him, and inspired him with a new
passion for birds and bird-watching. In particular, migratory birds, and especially snow geese,
became an obsession and he started planning to follow their migratory routes across
America.
The Snow Geese records Fiennes journey, but it is a very quirky record in which science is
entangled
with Fiennes unique perception of the people he meets along the way, and his meditative
observations on the homing instinct in birds and humans. He not only has an ornithologist's eye
for
the oddities of our own species, he has a wonderfully vivid and unexpected way of recording
them:
"The spherical man was first up, grabbing the handles of a leatherette overnight bag with his left
hand, wielding the orthopaedic stick in his right, and walking briskly with the rolling gait of a
goose
towards the uniformed VIA ticket collector at the gate."
Unexpectedly, this elderly man turned out to have run away from home at the age of fifteen just to
ride the freight trains. His tales of jumping rattlers, and of the wino's and hobo's he met up with
along the way, amused Fiennes from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay, but Fiennes own account of the
problems which faced the men who built the Hudson Bay Railway is equally fascinating.
And although Fiennes' tracking of the migrating snow geese was not as smooth as he expected, he
certainly saw geese. On the front cover of the book is a picture which looks like a random pattern
of
grey, white and blue. On closer inspection, it resolves itself into an Escher-like picture of geese. It
is,
in fact, a photograph of snow geese in flight - huge flocks of birds, just as Fiennes first saw them
in
Texas. There, from faint drifts of specks on the horizon, the birds flew closer until each speck
became a goose and finally "whole flocks circled over the roost, thousands of geese swirling
round
and round, as if the pond were the mouth of a drain and these geese the whirlpool turning above
it.
Nothing had prepared me for the sound, this dense, boisterous din, the clamour of a playground at
breaktime..."
From Texas, Fiennes followed the geese north, travelling by Greyhound bus, by car and by train.
Sometimes he had to wait for the geese to catch up, but each wait had its own character and
interest. Each was full of surprises. Eventually, he reached the breeding ground of the snow geese
in
Foxe Land, on the edge of the Hudson Strait. There, in a landscape so strange to him that he felt
dazed and disorientated, he borrowed a Snow Goose parka patched with grey masking tape,
pocketed a can of CounterAttack bear-repellent gas and accompanied an Inuit elder and her
chain-smoking son on a hunting expedition. To his distress, he ended up eating snow-goose
stew.
Fiennes own journey, like that of the geese, was one of migration and return, and of discovery. As
well as describing his journey, he describes the earliest medical recognition of nostalgia
(homesickness) as a clinical condition in humans; he explains the strange experiments scientists
have
devised to discover why and how birds migrate; and he notes, in passing, the migratory and
homing
instincts of the people he meets and finds the same impulses in himself.
This is an unusual and very enjoyable book. It shares something of the spirit of Peter
Matthiesson's
The Snow Leopard, but Fiennes has his own distinctive way of seeing the world and he writes
about
it beautifully.
The Resurrectionists
Michael Collins
Weidenfeld & Nicholson
ISBN: 1861591950 PRICE: A$29.95(paperback) 360 pages
Scribner
ISBN: 0743238567, $24.00 (October 2002)
Frank Cassidy is a sick man, and in many ways this is a sick book. Just about everyone in it is
mentally disordered in some way, even the psychologist, who is obsessed with proving his own
theory in any way he can.
Frank has been psychoanalysed; he was once confined in a mental institution; and he has been
subjected to ECT; but he is also the victim of circumstances and events which add to his mental
confusion. And since Frank tells this story, the reader is disorientated too.
Frank is an unpleasant character and it is hard to empathize with him as he tries to unravel the
mystery of his Uncle's supposed murder. Nor did I find anything amusing about the sordid
unpleasantness of his life, although the publicity handout for this book describes it as "Brilliantly
funny and unsettling".
It is unsettling all right. And the mystery is there, largely due to Frank's repressed and burned-out
memories. In summary: As far as Frank knows his parents died in a fire on their farm when he was
a
child. He remembers a burning barn; fear; his Uncle's presence; and a man called Chester Green,
whose name he calls out in recurrent nightmares but who was dead at the time of the fire. Now,
suddenly, Frank's Uncle has been found dead with a bullet in his head and a gun in his hand; a man
with Chester Green's distinctive tattoo is suspected of his murder but is in a coma in hospital after
trying to hang himself; and Frank or his cousin, Norman, or Norman's wife, are also under
suspicion
and may well have done the deed.
If you can put up with Frank and the unpleasant ways in which he wilfully alienates his wife, his
step-son, his sister-in-law and everyone else, then the confusion and puzzlement may keep you
reading until the end. But you may find the denouement as disappointing and over-elaborate as I
did,
and the book's title gives you a hefty clue right from the start.
Not my cup of poison, as you can tell, but mystery addicts may feel differently about it all.
The War Against Clich‚
Martin Amis
Vintage, PanMacmillan
ISBN: 0099422220 PRICE: A$26.96(paperback) 506 pages
Vintage Books
ISBN: 0375727167, $16.00, 527 pages
"Everybody", cries Martin Amis, referring us to the Internet to prove his point, "has become a
literary critic - or at least a book-reviewer". This, apparently, is all part of the "democratization"
of
the literary world. Mr Amis does not deplore this move towards egalitarianism (he believes that
would be pointless) but he thinks it unrealistically utopian and he feels that the results will be
contaminated by "herd opinions and social anxieties, vanities, touchiness, and everything else that
makes up self". He yearns for the eternal verities on which literary critics(and reviewers) once
based
their views: the canon; "the body of knowledge we all call literature"; Art.
Mr Amis is an idealist. But he is right about talent. Talent is not something which can be
democratized; and fresh, original, unclich‚d writing requires talent. For Mr Amis, the "crucial
defect" in literary journalism is dullness. In this collection of his own essays and reviews he not
only
wages war against clich‚, he demonstrates just how fresh and energetic and enjoyable talented
criticism can be. He is hardly ever dull. Of course it is tempting to go through his pieces and pick
out
the clich‚s (literary criticism is "dead and gone" and egalitarianism has "the pale a glow of
illusion",
for example, - and that's just in the Foreword) but that would be churlish given the enjoyable
quality
of most of the pieces in this book. The collection covers a period of thirty years and the pieces
were
originally published in such magazines and newspapers as The New York Times Review of
Books,
the Atlantic Monthly, The Times, Observer, Guardian and the London Review of Books.
Mr Amis's "voice" in this collection is by turns critical, argumentative, applauding, witty, and
often
shockingly irreverent and insulting. It is rarely boring, although on the evidence of some of the
pieces he is not always remote from the "hot snort of the hobby horse" which he identifies in his
review of a collection of John Updike's essays and criticism.
It is a matter of curiosity, too, that Mr Amis rather quaintly accords some authors a title (Mr
Parker
or Miss Murdoch, for example) whilst others are referred to by their surname (Updike, Nabokov,
Vidal etc.) or, in Hillary Clinton's case, by just "Hillary". Perhaps there is a note of irony in the use
of a title, and man-to-man respect in the surname-only form of address. There is clearly
disparagement in calling Hillary Clinton simply '"Hillary", if Mr Amis's assessment of her literary
skills in his review of It Takes a Village is anything to judge by. This particular review was the
first
piece I read in Mr Amis's book and his sarcasm took my breath away. It also made me laugh.
Another piece which surprised and amused me was 'Zeus and the Garbage", in which Mr Amis
was
consumed by mirth and prompted to explore male consciousness by Robert Bly's Iron John. Iron
John was grouped with such unlikely bedfellows as Margaret Thatcher, Andy Warhol and Elvis
Presley in a section called 'On Masculinity and Related Questions'. Other section-titles include
'Some
English Prose', 'Philip Larkin', 'From the Canon', 'Vladimir Nabokov', 'Some American Prose' and
'Great Books'. In all of them, I found things to interesting me and I was sorry when I had finished
the book.
I especially liked Mr Amis's essay on the "revaluation" of Philip Larkin (reprinted from the New
Yorker, 1993) in which he restores Larkin's work to the social context in which it was written,
puts
the Hermit of Hull's various accusers in their place, and brings us back to the poetry, not the man.
Would that more critics might follow this example and turn from biography, gossip and concerns
about political correctness to the work itself.
But here I am writing like one of those Internet reviewers who, as Mr Amis imagines, settles into
a
book "defensively", sees which way it "rubs him up," [him?] "the right way or the wrong way",
and
then writes a review "without any reference to the thing behind", i.e. to the canon etc. I don't
think
Mr Amis is always as immune to this approach as he thinks he is, but often his personal reactions
to
a book are funnier and/or more interesting than any demonstration of his educated background.
Nevertheless, it might be educative for Mr Amis to write a few Internet essays and reviews
himself -
just to set us an example and to lead us back to Art. He would discover, too, that Internet readers
are amongst the most demanding, knowledgeable and talented review and essay readers he could
hope to find.
Ann Skea, Reviewer
http://ann.skea.com
Judy's Bookshelf
Spin Wave Technology
George Bugh
Vasant Corporation
P.O. Box 121741, Fort Worth, TX, 76121-0741, USA
ISBN: 097166160X (165 HTML pages) Price: $34.00, http://www.vasantcorporation.com/
Format: CD Rom,, Initial Release, Collectors Edition, 2001
The author believes: "Using conventional science, it is possible to explain electromagnetic
processes
that have not been understood or described previously." (Cover notes) He states that spin wave
processes may prove to be the basis for future technological advances; and in this CD Rom, Bugh
shares his research on this subject.
There is a great deal of interest world-wide in various areas of spin wave theory. Bugh's interest is
in
electromagnetic fields and spin waves as they relate to propulsion, power generation, signal
generating and communications. This opens up a wide field of study of concepts that could be
applied to include: ESP, UFO's and alternate sources of power.
George Bugh is a senior staff electronics engineer in the aero-space industry with 19 years of
experience in the field of electronics and electromagnetic devices. His work involves testing
various
systems of advanced aircraft design using flight simulation studies. The CD Rom is not a result of
work done for his employer, rather it was a project he did on his own time.
In his off hours, Bugh began to browse the web where he visited sites with content about
electromagnetic theory, spin waves, and related devices. He began to wonder if there could be any
truth to the claims being made in relation to the electrical output of some of the unusual devices
he
found online. He realized that to understand the concepts and theories about spin waves, he
would
have to learn more about quantum physics so he could apply that knowledge in his research. Bugh
embarked on a six year course of self-study, also learning more about the nature of time, and
Einstein's Theory of Relativity, while conducting his research.
This CD Rom is comprised of forty files developed during that research. There's also an
introductory
video lecture, by the author, expanding on the concepts put forth. The CD is in the format of
HTML
pages, viewable in Netscape or MS Explorer browsers, with .mpg and .mov files included. There
are
many links to web sites, with definitions and supporting information, which the reader can access
online. Included, are four very nice original music selections composed by Stephan D. Schmidt -
the
CD Rom's web designer.
Bugh's application of the theories discussed and the conclusions he puts forth on the CD are not
scientifically validated. His exploration into spin wave theory is from the point of view of an
electronic engineer with a curiosity about possible adaptations of spin wave theory and
electromagnetic devices.
The author postulates:
"Classically, all precessional motion of charged particles should emit and absorb EM waves
regardless of the amplitude of the waves. It is this author's contention that they do. The EM
waves
of paired electrons will cancel except for an oscillating magnetic field direction with no
accompanying electric field oscillations. This is because while one precesses clockwise the other
will
precess counter-clockwise.
"If this theory is correct there should be waves of toggling magnetic field direction at a frequency
or
a set of frequencies that is common to all atoms. There may be a frequency associated with the
precessional frequency of paired electrons in each of the possible orbitals. There should also be a
much higher frequency or set of frequencies common to precessing quarks in protons and
neutrons
of all atoms." (File 25)
Although not yet scientifically proven, by offering his conclusions Bugh provides a springboard
for
further discussion with readers who may be able to build on his research. Instead of being an
academic, scientifically validated discourse, the material presents as a discussion between
interested
students sitting around the dorm. The author's inclusion of copies of related discussions between
himself and other interested parties on a Usenet forum add to the easy-to-read, informal nature of
the production.
There are drawings to help the reader understand the concepts, and Bugh includes many
mathematical equations throughout the work. The CD could use a bit more line editing, although
not
riddled with grammatical errors, there are some. All the links that I tried were working well; but
the
author does warn readers, due to the nature of the Internet, that some online links may not work.
There is a related web site where readers can get the most up-to-date information and notice of
any
errors. In visiting the web site while doing my review, I did note that the author reported that one
of
the drawings on the CD was incorrectly formatted. New editions will certainly be corrected.
This CD is for the informed reader. Students, and those of a scientific bent, may find this to be of
interest. Anyone working in the field of spin wave theory may enjoy working out the exercises the
author uses to demonstrate some of his points in order to see if the conclusions drawn are ones
worth further study.
The author hopes, by sharing his research, that he may stimulate discussion that may lead to new
technological advances. A print book, based on the material presented in the CD Rom version,
will
be available in the near future.
How To Promote Your Local Business On the Internet
Sharon Fling
e-Net Business Solutions
337 - 14431 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, California, USA 91423
ISBN: 0-9718971-0-7 First Edition, 2002, Format: PDF (137 pages) Price: $37.00,
http://www.localbizpromo.com
The author is an experienced web designer and Internet business person. Sharon Fling has written
an
ebook that is the definitive manual for making your business website a successful enterprise.
The Internet first started as an information sharing technology between government agencies in
the
military. The educational community also used it to network with peers for the free dissemination
of
information. Somewhere along the way, there was a ground swell of entrepreneurs who decided
that
they could make lucrative livings by starting up online businesses. The dot.com boom was on and
Investors lined up to shell out the millions to finance the new phenomenem. It didn't take long
before
the boom was bust and the financing dried up. Many people lost money and a large percentage of
online business dropped out of sight. The boom was over.
The reason why? The idea of earning large sums online with little or no work was not in keeping
with what people had come to expect from the Internet. Fly-by-night operators fleecing
unsuspecting buyers were widely reported and caused would-be shoppers to be suspicious of
security and trust in the online marketplace. Many bricks and mortar business people realized the
importance of having a website but they didn't know how to go about getting started online, or if
they did pay someone to create a web presence they weren't using it to full effect.
Sharon Fling is one of the few Internet business persons to realize that having a website can
compliment your local bricks and mortar business. Her ebook, How To Promote Your Local
Business On The Internet, is the definitive manual for marketing your offline business online, and
even if you don't have an offline business you can pick up many great tips to improve your online
business strategies.
Fling understands perfectly, the law of the web, "Gimme Some Free Stuff" (p. 8) and has
suggestions for freebies to give away. The author suggests "Building relationships is what
business is
about, especially on the Internet. Focus on the customer and you'll never have to worry about
selling. Win their loyalty and trust and they'll buy from you willingly, over and over again." (p. 14)
The author goes on to describe winning strategies for ecommerce, how to use email in your
marketing and how to go about setting up your first website. Even the most inexperienced user
will
find this to be an invaluable learning tool that will provide the incentive to set up a website that
will
be a winner for any type of business.
Chapter 10 is a series of case studies that are, alone, worth more than the price of this ebook.
Anyone interested in what to offer online to enhance an offline business will find a wealth of
information from the experience of the businesses depicted here. There are also links to each
website
so the reader can see just how a successful website is set up.
Appendix A is a glossary of Internet terms and Appendix B offers an extensive list of online
resources for business people with links to each website.
Appendix C, Internet 101 is a primer for the new Internet user by Scott Cottingham of
Internet101.org, "...selected by Yahoo as one of the three best sites on the net for beginners." (p.
102) It is an excellent guideline for anyone wanting to learn how to use the Internet and is written
in
such a way that even the first time user will get a good grounding in how to search for
information,
find free software and much, much more.
As an ebook specialist for the Midwest Book Review, I read many ebooks, I can say that "How
To
Promote Your Local Business On The Internet" is one of the most attractive and well formatted
ebooks I've seen. The information flows logically and is written with clarity in a straightforward
manner. Every page has valuable advice with tips and links to more information on the subject at
hand. The graphics are particularly well done, just enough to relieve the eyes and highlight the
text.
They are small and very well designed.
One of the most informative and helpful ebooks I've had the pleasure of reviewing. Very highly
recommended.
Reviewed by Judy Justice
http://www.creativepurrsuits.com/
Harwood's Bookshelf
The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read
Tim C. Leedom, editor
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
4050 Westmark Drive, Dubuque, Iowa 52002
ISBN 0840389086, 1993, 446 pp, ppb, $20 from Amazon.com
"Knowing the reaction of established religion in the past to critique and examination, we
anticipate a
strong response from those who won't even read The Book. These leaders and followers
continually
take the attitude, 'don't bother me with facts; I've already made up my mind.'" (p. iii)
"Because of religion, more human beings have been murdered, tortured, maimed, denigrated,
discriminated against, humiliated, hated and scorned than for any other reason in the totality of the
history of man." (p. v)
After that promising opening, The Book moves steadily downhill. This well-meaning proof that "a
little learning is a dangerous thing" is riddled with inaccuracies. For example, it credits Paul of
Tarsus with adopting the Mithraic Sun-day to replace the Hebrew Sabbath. (p. 4) In fact
Christianity
had no sacred rest day until Constantine borrowed the Mithraic Sun-day three centuries after
Paul.
It states that "Ancient man saw in his male offspring his own image and likeness, and his own
existence as a father was proved by the person of his son." (p. 21) But men did not have any
"father"
concept until c 3500 BCE, millennia later than the author of that passage appears to believe. It
lists
the original concept of the zodiac, "circle of animal," as consisting of twelve houses. (p. 24) But
the
original zodiac contained thirteen houses. Ophiuchus was purged and its portion of the sky
transferred to neighboring Scorpio sometime after the male revolution of c 3500 BCE.
While The Book correctly identifies the hexagram as "evolving later to become the Jewish Star of
David," (p. 42) it gives its origin as a Hindu sun symbol. In fact it originated as a sex-glorification,
with an up-pointing triangle representing the male genitalia superimposed on a down-pointing
triangle representing the female genital orifice. And while it identifies the sixth-century Mandylion
of
Edessa as the source of all later portraits of Jesus, it does not mention that, prior to the sixth
century, Jesus was acknowledged even by Christian apologists to have been ugly, deformed, and
"not even of honest human shape." As for the statement that Jesus' Aramaic/Hebrew name was
Yehoshua, (p. 147) the author of that item was either unaware or, as a practising pusher,
deliberately concealed that the correct name was Yahuwshua, Yahuw being the Jewish god's
proper
name.
The Book also includes an excerpt from John Allegro's hypothesis that Jesus the Nazirite was
"really" a deified mushroom, a theory so ridiculous that Robert Graves called it a "hoax." Graves
was far too polite. Allegro's mushroom fantasy destroyed his reputation, and rightly so. The
inclusion of such drivel says more about the editors' status as amateurs than perhaps anything else
in
the book.
On the good side, The Book includes a letter from Thomas Jefferson to his nephew (pp. 33-34),
spelling out a methodology for examining the evidence on which religious claims are based, a
methodology currently used by all legitimate scholars in all fields and rejected only by those
disciplines (religion, parapsychology) that start from predetermined conclusions and distort the
evidence until it fits. Articles by Bertrand Russell, Thomas Paine, Steve Allen and Joseph
Campbell
argue against the illogic of religious thinking, as do pieces by scholars whose names are less
known
to the masses, such as Gerald Larue, G. Vermes, A. J. Mattill Jr, Morton Smith, Robert Ingersoll
and Joseph McCabe.
There is a lot of interesting reading in The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read, but
nothing to justify its pretentious title. Indeed, bible thumpers might be well advised to promote the
book, so they can argue that, if this is the best case that can be made against religion, it has
nothing
to fear. Fortunately, there are books in print that do to religion what the first photographs of the
Martian surface did to the "canals" delusion, including those of Martin Larson, Richard Friedman,
McCabe and Ingersoll, not to mention Mythology's Last Gods.
Bad Astronomy
Philip Plait
John Wiley & Sons
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012
ISBN 0471409766, 277 pp., ppb, $15.95
"Movies show space travel all the time, but they show it incorrectly, and so it doesn't surprise me
that the majority of the viewing public has the wrong impression about how it really works.... The
news media's job is to report the facts clearly, with as much accuracy as possible. Unfortunately,
this
isn't always the case.... I remember vividly watching the Today show on NBC in 1994. The Space
Shuttle was in orbit, and it was doing an experiment.... Anchor Matt Lauer was reporting on this
experiment, and ... admitted he didn't understand what he had just said. Think about that for a
moment: three of America's most famous journalists, and they actually laughed at their own
ignorance in science! The report itself was accurate ... but what the public saw was three
respected
journalists saying tacitly that it's okay to be ignorant about science. It isn't okay. In fact it's
dangerous to be ignorant about science. Our lives and our livelihoods depend on it." (pp.
2-4)
After that promising start, Plait's next hundred pages drop to a level appropriate to junior high
school in any country in which teaching is still legal, or first-year university in North America. The
information dispensed is trivial, but readable and useful-to the degree that one finds it useful to
know
that sinks and toilets do not drain clockwise in one hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the
other,
and that anything that can be done to an egg on the vernal equinox, including balancing it on one
end, can be accomplished just as easily any other day of the year. Persons whose knowledge of
reality is more than minimal are urged to skip (or skim) the first thirteen chapters, and jump
directly
to "The Disaster that Wasn't," Plait's definitive debunking of the nonexistent "Jupiter Effect," that
had cranks, humbugs and sincere fantasizers claiming that a planetary alignment could cause the
destruction of planet earth. From that point on, this is a really good book.
For example (p.153): "People believe weird things. There are people who believe the earth is
6,000
years old. Some people believe that others can talk to the dead, that a horoscope can accurately
guide your day, and that aliens are abducting as many as 800,000 people a year. I believe weird
things, too. I believe that a star can collapse, disappearing from the universe altogether.... So
what's
the difference? Why do I think it's wrong to believe that the earth is young when I believe in
things
I've never seen? It's because I have evidence for my beliefs. I can point to well-documented,
rational,
reproducible observations and experiments that bolster my confidence in my conclusions."
And on page 154: "Odds are that you believe NASA sent men to the moon. So why devote a
whole
chapter to the minority that doesn't? There are several reasons. The most important is to simply
provide a rational and reasoned voice when such a voice is hard to find." That may not seem like
much of a reason to anyone unfamiliar with Emmanuel Velikovsky or Roman Piso. But scholars'
refusal to dignify those gentlemen's mushroom fantasies with rebuttals (until they did) led people
to
wonder if perhaps they could not be rebutted. I have never met anyone who thinks the moon
landing
was a hoax. But the theory has been raised, and without a Plait to demolish it, it could
conceivably
start to be taken seriously. That now seems less likely than it did before.
In his otherwise excellent chapter on Velikovsky, Plait states (p. 182), "The Hebrew calendar, still
going strong after 5,800 years...." The idea that the Hebrew calendar, which indeed dates
Creation
about 5800 years ago, existed any earlier than the oldest biblical writings, is as "utterly and
obviously wrong" as the nonsense Plait is rebutting. Fortunately, that one credulous paragraph
does
not weaken the chapter's effectiveness.
After berating Hollywood's bad astronomy for placing profits and ratings ahead of accuracy (Gene
Roddenberry's desire to have the Enterprise move silently through the vacuum of space, instead of
"whooshing" as it would do in an atmosphere, was vetoed by the network), Plait writes (p. 257),
"Do I really hate Hollywood movies? Armageddon notwithstanding, no I don't. I like science
fiction.
I still see every sci-fi movie that comes out.... If movies spark an interest in science in some kid
somewhere that's wonderful. Even a bad movie might make a kid stop and look at a science book
in
a library, or want to read more about lasers, or asteroids, or the real possibility of alien life. Who
knows where that might lead?"
No argument from me.
Litany Of Loons
Jack Truett
Xlibris
436 Walnut Street, 11th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106
ISBN 1401049575, 190 pp., ppb, $20.99, (also available in hardcover)
"Frankly, I don't care one whit what people believe. That is their individual business and of no
concern to me. But when a belief propels herds of them into damaging the rights and freedoms of
others, when such belief continually and constantly results in hideous wars and slaughter, and
when
such belief is obviously destroying my country's future and its citizens' well being, then it damned
well is my business." (p. 9) With those words, Jack Truett justifies writing a book designed to
"help
someone else, maybe even you, to avoid wasting your life-time stumbling fruitlessly on the same
path." (p.8) And he warns, "If you are a 'God' believer, I suggest you fasten your set belt. Or, if
you
are determined to live in fear, ignorance, and slavery the rest of your life, you can toss this book in
the trash can now." (p.51) Sadly, the people most in need of liberation from self-inflicted
mind-slavery are likely to do exactly that.
Truett explains the origin of tyranny as follows: "Perhaps one day the group encountered a beast
of
prey smack in the middle of their berry patch. The 'followers' would expect the King to do
something.... So he grabs a dry piece of brush ... charges at the beast, yelling and raising hell....
The
predator growled threateningly even as he fled ... but he did go.... A few days later ... there looms
out of nowhere, a sudden violent storm.... The bush shaking and yelling had scared off a vicious
beast ... what if... And, scared of the streaking, howling pandemonium around him, he grabbed the
self same bush, shook it at the roaring storm.... And the storm receded.... And so was born the
first
'incantation.' ... The 'Adviser' had gained kudos galore, and it is very probable that he had also
convinced himself of his 'magical' powers." (pp, 21-22)
Anyone who doubts the validity of that reconstruction need only look at a friend or acquaintance
who thinks he/she is "psychic," to realize that as few as two or three fulfilled expectations in a
lifetime will reinforce the believer's fantasy, while dozens of unfulfilled prophecies will not
disillusion
him. And I have met more than one megalomaniac priest incapable of doubting his power to send
anybody who pissed him off to the Christian Hell.
On the origin of gods: "Awareness seeks answers, especially to avoid dangers. Explanations
offered
'spirits.' Spirits demanded subservience. And thus Deity Religions were born." (p.38) To back up
that assertion, Truett explains, "When one reads 'Holy' scripture from any of the world's religious
writings, the 'God' that is described matches exactly the human Kings that ruled on Earth:
Childish,
self aggrandizing, temperamental, picayunish, demanding, conceited, and merciless ... always
ready
with 'reward' offered for those who will literally kiss his ass." (p. 39)
After explaining that his disillusionment with religion began in World War II, when he found
himself
in a British dungeon still containing torture devices used by the Catholic Inquisition (not a
peculiarly
Spanish or splinter-sect phenomenon), Truett goes on to explain the evidence that falsifies religion
far more effectively than any anecdotal experience. He reports the conclusions of a five-year
examination of the King James Bible by a panel of various experts: "There are over 19,000
provable
errors and self contradictions in God's Word, The Holy Bible." He adds his own comment, "Does
that really sound like an Omnipotent, All Knowing God inspired the thing?" (p. 148)
Most of Truett's account of the older religions plagiarized by their bastard offspring, Christianity,
is
identical with what is to be found in Mythology's Last Gods. But in places his interpretation of the
facts is very different. A truthseeker should read both and then decide who is right. Also, while I
am
not an expert on Muhammad and the origins of Islam, Ibn Warraq is, and Truett's reconstruction
of
the facts of history differs profoundly from Warraq's. Again, a seeker of truth should read both
before reaching a tentative final conclusion. And Truett may be the first person with the intestinal
fortitude to state openly that the position Muslims assume five times a day, presenting their rear
ends
to the sky, is an open invitation to their deity to shtup them up the brunzer.
While I have no quarrel with Truett's use of the words "hypnotized" and "mesmerized" to describe
the cultural conditioning imposed on all of us on a regular basis by hidden persuaders, and
self-hypnotized is surely the most accurate description one can come up with for incurable
creationists, he reports a wartime anecdote that appears to indicate a belief that hypnotism as
something more than heightened suggestibility actually exists. Apparently he has not read They
Call
it Hypnosis, Robert Baker's definitive debunking of the hypnotism delusion.
Truett's last chapter, in which he analyses the opening pages of Genesis, was clearly written
before
he encountered either Mythology's Last Gods or The Judaeo-Christian Bible Fully Translated, and
was not rewritten to take the information in those publications into consideration. That is
unfortunate, but it does not invalidate the rest of the book. But, assuming that he does not
actually
reject the multiple authorship of the Torah that explains the inconsistencies he found inexplicable,
he
should certainly give them a close reading before writing the second volume of his trilogy.
I sometimes got the impression that Truett received much of his information orally, and greater
familiarity with the spoken that the written forms of such words as anything, bloodbath,
brainwashing, countryside, everything, Hellfire, hindmost, humankind, leftover, lifetime, midnight,
nevertheless, outcastes, outlays, reincarnation, selfsame, shamefaced, stranglehold, therein,
thumbnail, uppermost, warlords, wedlock, whatever, wherein, widespread, without, wrongdoing,
yourself, and a few others caused him to write the various parts or syllables as separate words,
sometimes hyphenated. This is trivia, and only a nitpicker such as myself would even notice. But
as a
regular contributor to Truett's freethought journal, Pagan Palaver (P.O. Box 935, Somerville,
TN), I
need to preempt any accusation of treating Jack's book less severely than that of an author with
whom I am unacquainted, so that when I say this is a book worth reading, that evaluation can be
accepted as objective, and not simple butt-kissing. And it is worth reading, despite technical
errors
that had reached triple digits by page 60-imperfect, but worth reading.
The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science
Taner Edis
Prometheus Books
ISBN 1573929778, 326 pp, hc, $29.00
In his introduction to The Ghost in the Universe, Taner Edis observes (p. 14), "But today,
conservative, magical, scripture-waving religion has become obviously false to the well-educated
person.... Now, I don't intend to spend time refuting such claims; they are too blatantly wrong."
He
continues (p. 17), "The complexities of life do not require intelligent design; accidents and blind
mechanisms do the trick. Not only old-fashioned creationism but also more liberal attempts to find
a
progressive guiding hand in biology get nowhere." And as the icing on the cake he adds (p. 24),
"It
might even be said that proofs of God enjoy an immortality only truly bad ideas can aspire
to."
In arguing for an evolutionary rather than creationist origin of life, Edis writes (pp. 51-54),
"Evolution accounts for life as we see it, warts and all-without a designer.... Now that creationism
is
relegated to the intellectual fringe, and that liberal religious people accept evolution, it would
seem
the Darwin wars are not relevant to today's questions about science and religion.... When
creationism collapsed, this was not because of philosophical difficulties or even because of a
direct
contradiction by data. There were always things which did not fit smoothly; parasites, for
example,
strained the picture of benign harmony, even if imperfections could be expected in a fallen world.
In
time, more uncomfortable facts like extinct species and an old earth accumulated.... Populations
adapt to their environment and exhibit good 'design' because genes promoting reproductive
success
have a better chance to make it to the next generation.... Indeed, such uncompromising opposition
to evolution as to concoct a bizarre 'creation science' as an alternative is largely an American,
evangelical Protestant peculiarity."
On the failure of natural science to find any supporting evidence for a metaphysical First Cause or
Intelligent Design, Edis observes (pp. 107-108), "The story is that Napoleon asked Laplace what
part God played in his system, and Laplace answered, 'I have no need of that hypothesis.' ... If we
cannot fathom the divine reason behind why it rained last Sunday, or why the sky is blue, this is
hardly a great challenge to religion. But when God vanishes from physics, indeed, from all natural
science, it begins to look like there is no God after all. If there were a cosmic power, a divine
purpose behind everything, we should see traces of God in our world. We do not." As for the
reasoning behind the God hypothesis, Edis's comment is (p. 167), "It is like deciding Santa Claus
exists because we cannot figure out who bought one of the presents under our Christmas
tree."
On page 118: "Yahweh decides to cultivate a special nation from the seed of Abraham. He
gathers
the Jews out of Egypt, and leads them to a promised land which becomes theirs after some ethnic
cleansing. He also promises that if the Jews try and become more godly, obey his laws, be nice to
their neighbors, and slaughter whom he dislikes, they will become a privileged people." Reading
that
description of the authorized version of the origin of Western religion, I found myself wondering
if it
referred to ancient Jews under Joshua, or the modern Likud under prime ministers whose status as
"freedom fighters" rather than "terrorists" is strictly a function of their being on "our" side.
As a physicist rather than a historian, Edis not surprisingly makes factual errors concerning
historical
documents. For example, he states (p. 121) that Deuteronomy was "written in or after the exile of
the elites of Jerusalem to Babylon." But Deuteronomy was discovered behind a loose brick in
Yahweh's temple in 621 BCE-a generation before the Babylonian Captivity. It is a minor, one
might
even say insignificant, error. But it draws attention to Edis's status as an amateur in at least one of
the fields on which he comments. And, while he expresses disagreement with some of the
conclusions of Burton L. Mack and John Dominic Crossan, he quotes or paraphrases them to a
far
greater extent than their indefensible speculations warrant.
On Muhammad (pp. 130-131): "Muhammad seems to have been especially concerned about poets
who, in an age without television, could be influential in shaping public opinion. Fortunately, he
was
usually able to have them assassinated.... Muhammad dealt with the last remaining Jewish tribe in
Medina by a method straight out of the Bible.... So the Muslims, led by Muhammad, killed all of
the
men, divided the property among themselves, and enslaved the women and children."
On the incompatibility of different religions (p. 133): "If we create God in our own image, it is no
surprise that God should turn out to have so many different faces."
Edis asks (p. 153), "How does a Jewish apocalyptic prophet who was dead wrong about the
coming
Kingdom and who was crucified as a pest end up starting a Greek religion?" He suggests, (p.
167),
"If Jesus was a failed apocalyptic prophet, a teacher, or a faith healer, it is hard to see why God
would bother resurrecting him anyway." His explanation is (p. 169), "Believing in a peculiar but
deeply meaningful creed is not unusual for a fringe religious group.... Members of the early Christ
cult were convinced Jesus had to be vindicated by their God, and converted the disaster of his
death
into a reason for missionary fervor." He summarizes (p. 172), "But it is still strange to watch
Christianity dissolve into a vapid verbiage and contempt for truth which would be more at home
in a
California psychotherapy cult."
On the interchangeability of religion and parapsychology, Edis states (p. 179), "Miracles are the
tabloid underside of religion. Tales of levitating saints and weeping statues belong with
poltergeists,
spirit-summoning mediums, and psychics predicting California will slide into the sea." He
elaborates
(p. 203), "For all the overheated rhetoric, the skeptics are correct: parapsychology, like
homeopathy
or astrology, survives not on the strength of its results but because of its appeal outside of the
scientific community." And one of his subheadings is Thirty-one Flavors Of Ultimate Reality.
As for religion's pathetic attempts to harmonize an omnipotent, omnibenevolent god with the
existence of AIDS, cancer, transportation accidents, earthquakes and religious wars, to say
nothing
of urine, excrement and menstruation, Edis's observations are as good as any I have seen before
(P.
278): "After all, historically the biggest nuisance for theology has been the need to reconcile God
and evil.... Our Creator is supposed to be morally perfect and all-powerful, and this world was the
best it could manage? ... Most everyone can understand the pain of a parent who loses her child to
disease, and hear God's maddening silence in response. We need not master arcane technical skills
to
see how theologians' excuses for the silence are absurd in the face of suffering."
Edis's book says little that is new. How well he says it, the reader can judge for himself on the
basis
on the quoted passages. I see history as the only discipline capable of ultimately freeing
humankind
from religion, no matter how valid philosophical arguments may be. Not everyone agrees.
William Harwood
Reviewer
Macaire's Bookshelf
Sex Magic
Jennifer Dunne
Ellora's Cave
MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-192-3; Mobipocket (PRC) ISBN # 1-84360-193-1
Other formats (no ISBNs): Rocketbook, HTML, Adobe, $6.49, 100,000 pages
Simon Parkes is not your ordinary, mild-mannered professor. Actually, he's not ordinary at all!
His
stunning looks put him head and shoulders above most men, but it's his extracurricular activities
that
are more impressive.
Simon is a Guardian. He guards the earth from evil entities by using magic. Beth Graham knows
something is different about Professor Parkes. He borrows such strange books from the library
where she works. What could he want with all those occult books? But one thing is clear in her
mind
- books or not, she's interested in professor Parkes. So, not being shy, she invites him to dinner.
What better way to get to know someone? Beth doesn't know it yet, but she's in for a surprise.
Simon is interested in Beth, oh yes, but he's especially interested in sex magic. On their first date,
Beth and Simon make love for hours. Beth is in heaven, convinced that she's found her perfect
mate.
Simon, however, leaves in the middle of the night on a strange errand. 'Sex Magic' is a tightly
woven
tale of love and magic. Simon, as one of the Guardians, also works with the police solving occult
mysteries. On the campus, two students are found brutally murdered. The entity that Simon has
been
fighting against has somehow found a breach into the world, and Simon knows he's the only one
who can stop it. He must protect Beth, who has by some means come to the entities attention.
Perhaps it has possessed one of the students who have visited the library lately? Simon doesn't
know, but he wants to keep Beth safe, so he insists that she stays at his mansion.
The entity grows stronger though, and more murders occur. I don't want to give anything else
away,
but the story grows more fascinating with each chapter and I found myself staying up after
midnight
to find out how it would turn out! I wasn't disappointed! 'Sex Magic' is a rare combination of
murder
mystery, occult magic, scorching sex and true love.
Highly recommended.
Shifting Faces
Marilyn Lee & Elizabeth Jewell
Ellora's Cave
http://www.ellorascave.com
ISBN: 1-84360-176-1, Erotic romance rated NC-17, $6.99
Shifting Faces, an anthology with two stories in it, starts with The Quest II, Divided Loyalties.
The
story takes place on a faraway planet, somehow linked to earth. Jemi's husband, Cody, had always
believed in life after death. When he died, Jemi continued to receive letters from him, and one
directed her to an abandoned mining town, where she met two huge, talking felines and was
transported to the Volter, another land in another dimension. Somehow, Jemi shares a body with
a
princess royal, Jeroni. Jeroni is to wed a crown prince, and it is on the journey to her new home
that
Jemi 'arrives' and takes over her body.
Volter is an alien land set in the middle ages, or bronze age, perhaps, where men fight with
swords
and live in simple villages. Jeroni, princess royal, has a bodyguard, Dioni, who loves her. Jemi is in
love with the huge, talking carnivore called Hunter, who is the crown prince of Terra Tern,
another
part of Volter. These great cats can shape-shift at will, becoming human or catlike. The royal cats
mate with humans, who give birth to shape-shifting felines. Hunter has chosen Jemi as his life-long
mate. And mate they do - several times a day! This book largely deserves its NC-17 rating, for the
language is raw, the action well described, and the situations incredible. Suffice to say that Jemi,
sharing Jeroni's body, has a vagina that can contract and expand to accommodate her feline lover's
huge, foot and a half long penis, or pleasure her human lover's more normal attributes. I had a
hard
time following the story, and believe that there must be a Quest I, a first book in the series, that
would have helped keep everyone (and their lovers) straight. It's hard to tell, for example, what
really happened with Cody, or what Jemi and Jeroni were doing together. This story is a journey
to a
wild society where giant felines search for likely mates, and where humanoid women dream of
snagging the male-feline of their dreams. If you like your sex graphic and unusual, if the idea of
huge, shape shifting felines titillates your imagination, then this sex-filled story is a must read!
The second story in the series, A Matter of Faces, also deals with shape shifting, but it takes place
on earth, and the shape shifters are an ancient race that live among us, and have for thousands of
years. Piper is a human who meets the exact twin of her dead lover in a bar one night. Startled,
she
lets herself be wooed by him, and ends up in his apartment in bed with him. But once over her
shock, she decides not to see him again, knowing that his appearance will always cause her pain.
She
doesn't realise he can change appearances, and when she does, it's too late; they've already fallen
in
love. But some shape-shifters are evil and believe that mankind should not be aware of their race.
One in particular plans to kill Piper. Luckily, her lover Trey, is there to protect her (in whatever
form it takes!) The shape shifters cannot change into animal form, but they can change from men
to
women, and Piper is able to explore all the different facets of her sexuality with just one person,
Trey, who can change to fulfill her every fantasy! Again, the rating is NC-17, so I couldn't
recommend this to just anyone. But if you are open-minded and enjoy a book hot enough to
scorch
your eyeballs, this story is a fascinating tale of a relation between a human and an alien shape
shifter.
This story was particularly well written, and both stories use strong, graphic language to describe
sex, never once falling into silly euphemisms or 'purple 'prose', which is refreshing!
Recommended
Ravenous
Sherri King
Ellora's Cave
http://www.ellorascave.com
Erotic romance, ISBN : NA, $TBA
Cady Swann, a human woman, has powers that enable her to fight monsters. She feels obliged to
protect her sleepy little town of Lula, Georgia from the attacks of the ravenous beasts. At night
she
hunts monsters, and in the day she's a part-time librarian. The perfect life for Cady, who lives in
the
house left to her by her beloved grandparents, alone with her cat, Squaker.
But one night she's attacked in her own house by something even more terrifying than a monster.
Obsidian, a totally gorgeous, six foot ten inch Shiker warrior, has been assigned to find out more
about Cady. Instead, he treats her like she's a monster and attacks her. The fight is short and
vicious,
but before Cady can best Obsidian, he stabs her with a white blade that shoots out from the tip of
his
finger. The pain is blinding, and Cady passes out. Obsidian heals her with his magic, and then finds
out (to his chagrin) that he was supposed to convince Cady to fight with the Shikers, and that
she's
not an enemy. He has to go back and confront her again - and this time, he has to get her on his
side.
Not an easy task - Cady is not one to forgive and forget. Obsidian, being a proud, handsome
warrior, is convinced she'll soften up in a minute. Instead, he finds himself looking down the barrel
of a very large gun, held by a very angry woman.
The interaction between Cady and Obsidian (whom she insists on calling 'Sid', much to his horror)
is
wonderfully funny. They are obviously made for each other, but even as their bodies join in
perfect
harmony, they manage to have epic fights, in and out of bed. Part of the problem is that for the
Shikers the human race is an inferior breed. But Cady is much more than an ordinary human, and
Obsidian soon comes to realize just how much she means to him.
Filled with a fascinating cast of characters including 'Grimm', a Shiker transporter given to
voyeurism, and Tryton, a matchmaker in search of flaming matches, this story moves so fast it's
hard
to keep up! Once started, it's impossible to put down, and the fighting blends in with the hot and
passionate lovemaking - with love winning in the end, of course!
Highly Recommended.
Rayven's Awakening
Sherri King
Ellora's Cave
http://www.ellorascanve.com
ISBN 1-84360-199-0, Erotic romance, $6.49
Rayven has never felt like she belonged anywhere. An orphan, she spent her life shuttled from one
foster home to the next, never fitting in, never finding anyone remotely like herself. Lovely, with
long, black hair and startling, golden eyes that seem to read people's minds, Rayven disconcerts
most
people searching for a child to adopt. And then, two people who love her despite her oddness
adopt
her and at fifteen, she finds contentment. Her happiness is short-lived, however. The house burns
down, and only a mysterious bird helps Rayven escape the inferno. But her parents are dead.
Worse
- clues seem to indicate she was the one who started the fire!
Arrested and convicted on trumped-up charges, Rayven lands in prison - but not for long. Using
her
will power, she bids the jailer to open her door and he does. She walks free, but then spends many
years in hiding, while the police search for her. While free, Rayven finds she has other powers.
Powers that range from exceptional strength to the ability to see into people's minds and sense
their
emotions from a great distance. But all this has no meaning for her. Instead, she only longs for a
place to call home - a place where she can feel at home.
Far away, in another galaxy, General Karis rages at his minions. For years they have hunted the
elusive woman called Rayven, and yet she remains unfound. In desperation, he hires a Monabi
psychic bounty hunter to track her, and sends him to earth with his soldiers. Karis must capture
Rayven - his life and rule as dictator depend upon destroying her - or worse.
Rayven is not human. She is a member of a once mighty race called The Aware, who used to live
on
the planet of Nye. General Karis, using the might of the Galactic Communal Army, destroyed the
planet and massacred the Aware. Every last one of them had been killed. Except one - a little girl
whose parents managed to send to a distant planet, earth. The girl's parents hadn't been just
anyone -
she was the daughter of Empress and the Emperor of Nye, and future leader of her people. Hah!
What people? He'd destroyed them all! All? Well, not quite. A few escaped and now lived on a
beautiful hidden planet, Hostis. Their numbers being few and their main concern is procreation.
But
they need the powers of two leaders joined in marriage to ensure fertility for the whole race.
Draco,
their male leader, must find Rayven and marry her. Using his powers, he saves her from the
ignoble
General Karis and brings her to Hostis.
Rayven finds herself suddenly at the head of a strange and powerful race of people. But there are
some problems. She was raised on earth, where it's considered rude to make love at the dinner
table.
On Hostis, the Aware copulate anywhere, anytime, much to Rayven's embarrassment. And worse
-
they expect her to throw herself into Draco's arms. But she won't! Draco may be incredibly
handsome and seductive - he's also overbearing, insufferable and is trying to teach her all she has
to
know about using her powers to save their people. Rayven is caught in the middle of a maelstrom,
and to make things worse - General Karis has raised another army and is on his way. Will he
succeed
in destroying the Aware once and for all? Read Rayven's Awakening, and find out! This book will
take you on a fascinating voyage to another planet where you'll find yourself high in the beautiful
Neffin trees, lit by twinkling emalaya vines, where Rayven must face her destiny.
Highly Recommended.
Born To Fly
Becky Barker
Ellora's Cave
http://www.ellorascave.com
ISBN: 1-84360-155-9, Erotic Romance, $5.95
Sharla is a triplet - she and her two sisters share lovely blue eyes and honey blond hair. They also
share the family business - Prescott Air Service - and they are all pilots. Her newest job is flying
Reed Conner from one city to another.
Reed Conner! Sharla can't stand him. He's always rubbed her the wrong way for some reason. His
golden brown eyes seem to criticise her every time he gazes at her. He's not tall, but incredibly
well
-built. Sharla can't help reacting to his presence, even while she wishes he were somewhere else!
But
he's not - he's right next to her in her small plane.
Reed Conner is an FBI agent, and his mission is a delicate one. He's acting as a decoy guarding a
witness, and the US Marshals and several other FBI agents are involved. He doesn't want to get
Sharla in any trouble, but someone breaks into her hotel room the first night, and Reed thinks that
now his cover is blown and she may be in danger. He feels he has to protect Sharla, but her
curvaceous body wrecks havoc on him. Each time she gets near him he goes into sensory
overload.
Then they run into more trouble - Sharla is forced to make an emergency landing in a storm.
Luckily, Reed knows of an airstrip and a deserted cabin. Sharla has suffered a bump on the head,
but
otherwise is all right. Neither is thrilled about being stuck with the other. Sharla because she can't
stand Reed, and Reed because Sharla's sexy body is driving him crazy.
The sexual tension climbs to the stratosphere as they spend the next few days alone together. Of
course, I won't ruin the ending - suffice to say the author has taken romance rules to heart and
cooked up a steamy love story! If you like form romance, with macho heroes, spunky heroines
and
lots of sexual tension and graphic sex, then this book is for you.
Recommended.
Jennifer Macaire, Reviewer
http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/Iskander
Roger's Bookshelf
Recruit Smarter, Not Harder
Mel Kleiman & Brent Kleiman
HTG Press
8300 Bissonnet, Suite 490, Houston, Texas 77074
ISBN 1893214044, $15.95, trade paperback, 177 pages
Have you read Eli Goldratt's "The Goal?" How about other business novels that read like a story,
but teach valuable business lessons? "Recruit Smarter, Not Harder" is one of those instructive
tales.
The lesson is about recruiting the best hourly employees, a message that is vital to today's
employers. The setting is a grocery retailer, but could easily apply to any organization employing
hourly workers.
The key to success today is recruiting, hiring, and retaining top talent. Competition for top talent
will intensify as the economy heats up again, so now is the time to learn the lessons of this book . .
.
and apply them. Human resources professionals, small company owners, managers, and
supervisors
will all benefit from this quick read.
There are many lessons in this book including "A Marketing Approach to Recruiting, Jobseeker
Profiles, Job Analysis, Attracting Applicants, Sources of Applicants, and Managing Turnover.
Appendices on the authors' Magnetic Company philosophy and tactics add value to the book, as
do
the summaries at the end of each chapter.
Lots of helpful, practical knowledge packed into a story that's easy and enjoyable to read. The
lessons almost sneak up on you as you read the interesting tale. Good balance between fiction and
moral.
Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake: Practicing The Perfections Of The Heart; The Buddhist Path
Of Kindness
Sylvia Boorstein
Ballantine Books
ISBN 0345448103, $24.95, hardcover, 284 pages
In all fairness to my readers, I must begin this review by telling you that I typically review
business
books. This is not a business book. I'm not sure how I got it, but somehow this unusual (for me)
book appeared on my shelf of books to review. I took it along on a business trip, more out of
curiosity and whimsy than a particular interest in actually reading the book. On the airplane, for
some reason, I decided to skim through "Pay Attention, for Goodness Sake" instead of reading a
business book I'd also brought along.
This read was refreshing. Good word. It was a refreshing change of pace from my usual fare. But,
it
was also re-freshing, if I may hyphenate for emphasis. Sylvia Boorstein, both a Jew and a
Bhuddist,
has written a number of books. Thought I haven't read them, I suspect, like this one, they teach in
a
conversational, comfortable way. I learned and found some interesting comfort as I read through
these pages, like having an interesting discussion with someone who knows more than you do.
You
want to listen. As I turned page to page, I found myself held to the book. I wanted to read a little
more and a little more.
This is a thoughtful book, describing ten "paramitas" or perfections. The organization and flow of
the book makes it easy to grasp the author's message and organize it in your own mind. The
introduction explains the concepts and their application. Each "perfection" or practices is
presented
in its own chapter: Generosity, Morality, Renunciation, Wisdom, Energy, Patience, Truthfulness,
Determination, Lovingkindness, and Equanimity. I would describe the work as an instructional
guide
that inspires the reader to think . . . no, to ponder.
This is not a business book in the customary classification of books, but I'd certainly recommend it
for current and aspiring business leaders. We all need to pay attention more than we are; we miss
so
much in today's rush-rush world. Take time to reflect, to ponder. Refresh yourself with this
book.
Patagonia: At the Bottom of the World
Dick Lutz
Dimi Press
3820 Oak Hollow Lane, SE, Salem, OR 97302-4774
ISBN 0931625386, $18.95, Trade paperback, 206 pages
What's a Patagonia? It's a region of the world, rather than a country. Located at the southern tip
of
South America, it spans portions of both Chile and Argentina. A many-faceted environment, it is
closer to Antarctica . . . complete with penguins, glaciers, and much, much more.
Author Dick Lutz, a veteran of three previous nature/travel books, takes us on a delightful
journey
of this little-known region. The first chapter is a sort of journal of his experience on a guided tour,
reporting one adventure after another. Throughout the chapter are references to later chapters for
detail on what Lutz has seen and experienced on the tour. Just reading the first chapter alone will
be
a worthwhile education, but there's so much more to this book.
The following four chapters deliver a considerable amount of information to the reader. You
could
never even ask all the questions that are answered in these pages. Chapters on the environment,
history, native groups, and Patagonia today are chock-full of information that makes for
fascinating
reading. The environment chapter explores a wide range of facts, including the wildlife, terrain,
and
climate. The now-extinct Patagonian Indians are described in Chapter 4, while Chapter 5 explains
the current situation in this sparsely populated region governed by two nations.
A long appendix of Darwin's 1834 treatise of his experience in the area, as written in "Voyage of
the
Beagle," is included as an appendix, amplifying the stories of sailors' experiences around Cape
Horn.
A bibliography, seven color photos, and index add extra value to this intriguing book.
If you're interested in visiting the region (I am now) or just want to learn about it, this book will
be
an enjoyable eye-opener. Well-researched, well-written.
The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen
Harper Business
ISBN 0066620694, $16.00, trade paperback, 287 pages
If a business does things the right way and invested in new technologies, would you not expect
them
to succeed? If they introduced new products that could really make a difference in the
marketplace,
should they not be rewarded with a strong market leader position? Is not innovation the key to a
great future?
If the technology is "disruptive" to the point that it is initially rejected by mainstream customers,
great firms could fail miserably. Too much change, apparently, is not good. Huh?
As Christensen, a Harvard professor, explains it, "Most new technologies foster improved product
performance. I call these sustaining technologies. Some sustaining technologies can be
discontinuous
or radical in character, while others are of an incremental nature. What all sustaining technologies
have in common is that they improve the performance of established products, along the
dimensions
of performance that mainstream customers in major markets have historically valued." "Disruptive
technologies bring to market a very different value proposition than had been available
previously."
Aha, it's the type of change. Well, that's part of the story. There's much more.
The first part of this book explains why great companies can fail. Examples are provided to help
the
reader understand how innovation can, in fact, cause problems instead of improvements. The
second
part of the book, much longer, explores how to manage disruptive technological change. Readers
will learn how to give responsibility for disruptive technologies to organizations whose customers
need them (the right provider makes a difference), how to match the organization size to the
market
size, and how to appraise your organization's capabilities and disabilities.
A valuable feature of the book is a summary that can serve as a guide or
executive summary. The strong index helps, too.
Work Worldwide: International Career Strategies For The Adventurous Job Seeker
Nancy Mueller
John Muir Publications
ISBN 1562614908, $14.95, Trade paperback. 232 pages.
If working in another country is in your career plans, you will find a treasure chest of valuable and
important information in this book. Author Nancy Mueller is a recognized global career expert.
It's
obvious as you read these pages that this woman knows what she's talking about. What a resource
to have for your international experience.
Some Americans who work in other countries do so by choice; others are assigned to overseas
posts
by their employers. This book works well for both situations, though it begins with lots of advice
for
people who are driving their own career choices. The introduction and the first couple of chapters
are designed for people who are making this exciting decision on their own. The big question
about
how to find work abroad is fully explored to help you make educated decisions. Those first two
chapters are Get Started---Focus and Get the Facts---Research.
Chapter 3 advises Get Connected---Network! Lots of dos and don'ts here, supplemented by an
appendix listing the American Chamber of Commerce offices in other countries. Chapter 4: Get
Support---Ask. Chapter 5---Prepare. See the pattern? Chapter by chapter, this book helps you get
your act together for the idiosyncrasies of global work and life. You'll learn how to prepare your
resume for international job-seeking, how to conduct interviews, how to follow-up, and even
warnings about what kinds of mistakes to avoid.
Chapter 7 will help you navigate through the jungle of visas, work permits, and an international
work contract. You'll learn about compensation, how to get ready for the move, and how to
prepare
for culture shock. Chapter 8, Acculturate, will give you a good lesson in etiquette, social customs,
and even a set of social profiles country-by-country about some of the places you're most likely to
go. Wherever you go, you'll probably come back . . . and that's not as easy as you might think.
Chapter 9 will guide you through the readjustment. This is a good chapter to read during your
decision-making process. Anticipating the return, is this really something you want to do?
Yes, at this point in the book, you'll still have questions. That's why you'll be delighted to see that
chapter 10 starts with Frequently Asked Questions. You'll find all kinds of tips in this chapter that
will deepen your understanding of the adventure that lies before you.
Extra value is provided by the appendices and index. You'll get a good reading list, internet
resources, and even a list of foreign embassies in Washington, D.C.
If you're considering working abroad, read this book . . . with a highlighter handy!
Good Fat, Bad Fat: How To Lower Your Cholesterol And Reduce The Odds Of A Heart
Attack
William P. Castelli, MD and Glen C. Griffin, MD
Fisher Books
c/o Perseus Books Group
Eleven Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
ISBN: 1555611176, $14.00, trade paperback, 1-800-242-7737
This book was recommended by my cardiologist. After a good scare, remedied with a stent, doc
suggested I drop some weight and alter my diet. I nodded respectfully, stuck the book in the
drawer
in my nightstand, and forgot it. In spite of my good eating intentions, my weight kept climbing.
Not
good. Hmmm, maybe I ought to take a look at that book. Probably a waste of time; I've never
been
able to understand all that nutrition stuff anyway.
Well, I got a bit of a surprise as I opened this book and started reading. My interest was captured
pretty quickly, something I didn't expect. The book is conversational---and understandable! I'll
share
a few items from the opening Helpful Information summary on page 3: Saturated fats are bad fats.
Trans-fatty acids are also bad fats, but you won't find them listed on nutrition labels. Healthy
people
should limit their intake of bad fat to 20 grams a day. Folks like me should restrict their
consumption
to 10 grams a day. Uh oh.
The more I read, the more I learned. I know a lot more now about the things I should not be
eating .
. . if I want to keep my arteries clear and avoid another heart problem. I'll confess that reading this
book changed my eating habits. I had been eating food that I thought was good for me, or at least
acceptable. Boy, did I get some surprises! My sensitivity to saturated fat, cholesterol,
triglycerides,
and other problems is significantly enhanced. And I can understand why the authors are
saying!
The second half of the book is comprised of recipes, low-fat, low-cholesterol recipes for
appetizers,
soups, salads, breads, beans, vegetables, fish, and much more. This section is a really nice feature
to
help readers put their new knowledge to work. An advertising note on the back cover proclaims,
"This book can save your life!" Believe it. Healthy or not, read this one.
Ask The Right Questions. Hire The Best People
Ron Fry
Career Press
ISBN 1564144143, $14.99, Trade Paperback, 221 pages
Interviewing job candidates is not as easy as it looks. And in today's world, with legal constraints
and applicants driving interviews, the process is certainly different than in the past. This book
offers
some good practical tactical advice for interviewers, presenting the information in a way that's
easy
to grasp. This ease of understanding is vitally important for department heads and other people
who
now participate in sequential or shared interview experiences. If you don't interview applicants
every
day, you just don't know this information.
Fry has written other books on this topic---from the applicant's perspective. He's the author of the
strong-selling "101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions." It's interesting to watch
him play both sides of the table like this whole hiring process is like a grand game of chess.
But, hiring people is not a game. It's serious business. To hire the right people, you have to ask
the
right questions. It's important to understand what the answers are telling you and how your
questions and the applicant's answers guide your hiring decisions.
The Table of Contents is sparse. It really doesn't help the reader determine where to find things in
the book. Fortunately, there is a somewhat helpful index that can assist, but that's going
backward.
The book begins with some preliminary information about job advertising and resume screening.
Chapter 2 explores interview styles including telephone interviews, team interviews, behavioral
interviews, and stress interviews. Next, the reader is instructed about what to look for in the
interview, then comes the interview process itself. Various categories of questions are presented,
with suggestions of good answers (represented by the green light graphic) and not-so-good
answers
(represented by the red light graphic). This pattern begins on page 72 and continues through the
balance of the book. I felt a sense of too much of a pattern, like an assembly line process, in the
presentation of the information, though there is value in the advice that is shared.
Chapter 11, Staying Out of the Legal Cauldron, may be one of the most valuable chapters of the
book. It contains several pages of questions that interviewers are NOT allowed to ask by law. In
those organizations (most?) that have supervisors and potential co-workers interview applicants,
this
information is vital to impart.
Deliberate Success: Realize Your Vision With Purpose, Passion, And Performance
Eric Allengaugh, PhD
Career Press
ISBN 1564146170, $24.99, Hardcover, 288 pages
"Achieving success is not an accident; it results from a deliberate process of identifying a
compelling
purpose, passionately pursuing your vision, preparing for high level outcomes, and performing at
your best." Thus we being our journey with a seasoned (two decades) executive coach,
professional
speaker, and consultant in peak performance. The author is a proven expert in his field-a specialty
that has enduring value for individuals, teams, and organizations.
The book-full of advice and counsel that would cost you thousands in a personal consultation-is
organized into five strategies. The strategies are Direction, Culture, Empowerment, Coaching,
and
Renewal. Each strategy is presented as a section of the book, with three or four chapters on each
category. Two special features add value to this book: an abundance of relevant quotes
throughout
the book and cameo contributions from thirteen fairly well-known authors and executives. A
bibliography and index round out the book.
Under Direction, Allenbaugh shows readers how to link purpose and passion with performance.
Chapters focus on creating a compelling mission and vision, linking into your passion, and
implementing your vision. The Culture section describes how to sustain a results-oriented,
customer-focused climate-valuable for individuals as well as organizations. The three chapters
illuminate various aspects of culture, including the importance of values. The Empowerment
section
focuses on releasing human potential. There are several insightful chapters on empowering
people,
honoring the differences among people, and hiring winners by using Attitude, Aptitude, and
Alignment as filters.
The coaching section addresses building others' success, effective expression and listening skills,
and
a focus on results. The last portion of the book explores the "3 Rs of Renewal: Release, Reaffirm,
and Reinvent." Chapters on individual renewal and organizational renewal contribute useful
perspectives.
Easy-to-read book for individuals, managers, business owners, consultants, and those charged
with
the responsibility (and opportunity) of coaching others to deliberate success.
This is a good how-to book, enjoyable and enlightening as a read-through and worthwhile as a
reference when you need a re-focus.
Valuing People: How Human Capital Can Be Your Strongest Asset
Lisa M. Aldisert
Dearborn Publishing
ISBN 0793150159, $27.00, Hardcover, 230 pages
With the increasing shortage of qualified skilled labor, concern for human capital has grown.
Major
consulting firms have established whole departments around the concept, much has been written,
and there's even a magazine called "Human Capital."
We used to talk about "personnel," then the term shifted to "human resources." The same thing,
but
different words? No. The human resources concept is more broad, more comprehensive, and
hopefully more strategic. So what's the difference with this newer term of "human capital?" This
concept emphasizes measurement---measuring the value of people to their employing
organization.
The human capital value doesn't show up on the balance sheet, at least not yet, like other forms of
capital. Investors, however, are paying more attention to concerns like staffing levels, worker
competency, employee performance, and workforce stability.
Interestingly, while chief human resource officers typically have strong relationships with their
chief
executive officers, their least effective relationships are with chief financial officers. These results
from a recent survey of senior HR executives was quite revealing, demonstrating that human
capital
valuation has not yet reached all those who should be concerned about it. This book will help. It's
written for people who have responsibility for generating revenue, increasing profitability, or
enhancing productivity.
The author, a nationally-known consultant and speaker in the field of strategic growth and
leadership development, marries the two concepts well in these pages. She starts with The
Strategic
Importance of Human Capital with three chapters that do a fine job of positioning, education, and
stimulating thought. Each chapter is recapped with a summary of key ideas and thinking points.
Just
flipping to the of each chapter and reading these pages will give you your money's worth from this
volume. These chapters cover the broad spectrum of relevant trends and issue to give readers
insight
into the "why" as well as the "what."
Part Two, Measuring Human Capital, provides an in-depth survey of the measurements being
used
to value employees today, as well as the organizations that are engaged in this work. In spite of a
brief section on moving from theory to practice on page 81, the author does not present any
specific
recommendations about which process should be used.
Part Three shifts to How to Develop Human Potential in the Firm. The more modern concepts are
presented here: attracting talent, developing employees, virtual capital, building leadership, and
looking at human capital as an investment in the organization. As an appendix, Aldisert offers her
Valuing People AuditSM. It's a check-off list with a 5-point Likert scale exploring how much
attention is given to issues that affect the people side of the business. Thus, the book explores
well
the concept of valuing human capital, but does not definitively provide a step-by-step specific
method. There isn't a standard yet, but this book builds the understanding that could provide a
platform for such development. First, corporate executives need to understand the concept of
valuing their employees as human capital. This book will certainly help.
Good notes section and strong index.
Skill Wars: Winning The Battle For Productivity And Profit
Edward E. Gordon
Butterworth-Heinemann
ISBN 0750672072, $24.99, Trade paperback, 339 pages
America-and the world-face a serious, probably debilitating shortage of skilled workers. Oh, there
are plenty of people out there, most of whom want to work. However, if they don't have the skills
that are in demand by employers, their work opportunities and career futures are limited.
Employers
will compete to attract and hold the people with the skills to get the job done. Savvy workers will
compete to acquire and market skills that will be in demand and that will make them unique and
marketable in the world of work. Many will do well. Other employers and workers will not fare so
well, changing the face of employment.
This book addresses a wide range of topics, organized into three sections: Measuring Human
Capital
Development, Reports from the Firing Line: Improving Productivity and Performance, and
Developing People. The content is not directed just toward educators or professionals in the field
of
training and development. It is more broad-based. As explained by the author in his introduction,
"For the business person, "Skill Wars" is a policy book about managing and measuring workplace
performance and profit. For the union leader and employee, "Skill Wars" is about employability
and
personal growth. For parents, "Skill Wars" is about their children's future careers and guaranteed
participation in "the American Dream." For politicians and government leaders, "Skill Wars" is a
blueprint for what new voters are beginning to demand in every state across America: new laws to
create a more knowledgeable workforce. For educators and trainers, "Skill Wars" offers new
ideas
on how to better collaborate with all these groups and create innovative, diverse curricula,
whether
in a schoolroom or the corporate classroom."
Ninety figures illustrate the book, accompanying the text to illuminate the concepts delivered on
page after page by Edward Gordon, PhD, a consultant specializing in human/intellectual capital
for
over two decades. His teaching experience at DePaul, Loyola, and Northwestern Universities
complement his work as a consultant, writer, and speaker. Gordon certainly has the credibility and
background to write this important book.
You will bob your head up and down in agreement as you read this book. You'll also shake your
head in disbelief and amazement as you realize how far behind we are-how much remains to be
done. Gordon cites the numbers, concentrating on the ROI: the Return on Investment in building
skills and capacity. The research has been done on this book, as evidenced by the number of
footnotes offering bibliographical references. The pages are packed with information.
The final chapter, Investing in Human Capital: A Blueprint for the 21st Century, is particularly
powerful . . . and should be carefully considered by everyone in a position to help build the skill
base
that will be needed. And that's all of us. Gordon warns that "The gap between the so-called
'knowledge workers' and low skilled workers is widening at an alarming rate." Why is the gap
growing? "Because too many businesses are engaged in an act of financial levitation, trying to
make
bigger and bigger stacks of money from companies that are barely growing. Their magic act
centers
on cost-cutting, squeezing staffs, slashing training, eliminating everything except their 'core
business
operations.' The predominant American management philosophy of the 1990s has been that
business
exists only to drive up stock prices and enrich shareholders."
As we've seen in recent months, this strategy has been damaging, to say the least. More sensitive
employers are creating life-work balanced environments, demonstrating stewardship for the world
around us, and taking other steps to correct and improve our corporate society. "Skill Wars"
should
stimulate more serious efforts to build workforce competencies or all the other efforts will be
smoke-and-mirrors and fa‡ade.
More people need to read this book. Now.
Thrival! How To Have An Above Average Day Every Day
Dr. Paul O. Radde
Pathligher Press
1500 Riverside Drive, Suite 810, Austin, Texas 78741
ISBN 0902587214, $25.00, hardcover, 300 pages
Paul Radde is an international keynote speaker, executive coach, and organizational consultant
with
a PhD in psychology and community counseling. His career includes 25 years as a practicing
psychologist. Over a lifetime, Radde has studied human behavior, observing that most people
simply
survive, not thrive. They don't really relish life at its fullest. His practice-and this book-are a sort
of a
mission to help people really maximize their lives.
Radde's concern is that "Very few people seem to be living in a thriving space, or letting on that
they
are, if indeed they are. One percent currently derive the richest experience of, and full enjoyment
from, their lives." The balance are Committed Seekers (35%), Going About Their Daily Lives
(40%), or Think Thriving is a Forbidden Fruit (24%). So, the focus of his book "is on this
exceptional state of well-being called thriving . . . an experience of lightness, expansiveness, and
exceptional well-being: the precise exceptional moments of well-being that many people say make
life worth living."
The book is organized into three parts: Defining Thriving and Thrival, Getting Started on Your
Path
to Thriving, and Rules & Guidelines to Access Thriving. The twenty chapters range from Life Can
Be Better to Entering the Thrival Era, Opening Yourself Up, Five Things You Can Control, and
Meet Your Essential Need for Balance. The third section of the book includes three rules and
seven
guidelines for thriving and a guide to getting it all together. A recommended reading list expands
the
reader's opportunity to learn.
This book is a first-person sharing and caring that opens into a sort of conversation, a discussion
about the topic. Readers will nod, contemplate, and perhaps make adjustments in their lives to
reach
closer to Radde's thrival state. For those who would like a sort of personal experience with an
introspective psychologist and close observer of life, this book will be very enjoyable. For those
who
don't desire to really get in touch with their inner selves, this is not the time for you to read this
book.
Capture The Rapture: How To Step Out Of Your Head And Leap Into Your Life
Marcia Reynolds
Hathor Hill Press
Post Office Box 5012, Scottsdale, AZ 85261
ISBN 0965525007, $16.95, Trade Paperback, 237 pages
"Capture the Rapture." What kind of a title is that? A watercolor landscape on the front cover
against a background of a sort of light blue that seems to say "I'm not really blue." This must be
one
of those touchy-feely woo-woo books about finding God in your life, written by a housewife with
nothing else to do. A friend gave me the book, suggesting that as a book reviewer I might be
interested.
Get real. Most of the books I review are business books. Solid stuff written by people with
credentials, a right to convey an important message to others. Some of the books I review are
self-published; other are produced by major royalty publishers. I look for what I call "worthiness."
Is
this book worthy of my time and attention and, more importantly, is it worth the time and
attention
of people who trust my reviews.
With the above statements in mind, you can understand how I approached "Capture the Rapture."
I
started with the acknowledgements page. (Yes, I actually read this stuff!). The page begins "It has
been twenty-five years since Vicki, my cellmate and soulmate ." Whoa! "Cellmate?" Who is
this?
Chapter 1. The author trots off to elementary school and proves herself to be a high achieving,
outspoken, well-liked kid. Proud of her academic and social achievement, she goes on to high
school
where she encounters a much different culture: sports and drugs. She excelled in this environment,
too, to the extent that two years after graduation she found herself in the county jail for six
months.
Whew! This kid's on a downhill slope to nowhere. Nope. Read her story.
Marcia Reynolds graduated summa cum laude from college, earned two masters degrees, moved
up
in the corporate world, and established her own business. She's a Master Certified Coach,
professional speaker, and a former president of the International Coach Federation. If you're
thinking, "Wow, if she's done all that, I'll bet she could teach me something!"
You will learn a lot in this three-part book: The Pleasure of Being, Venturing into the Vertical
World, and Capture the Rapture. Chapters like Strengthening Your Foundation, Visioning and
Covisioning, The Possibility Game open your thinking and stimulate your mind and heart.
Chapters
on Rapture at Work, at Play, and in Relationships deliver ideas, guidance, and inspiration. The
book
is practical, deliberately helpful, and hard to put down. Your own personal coach will emerge
from
the pages to enable you to move to the next level in your life.
Marcia Reynolds is an outstanding example of "been there, done that." Her book reflects that
power,
experience, love, and support. Well worth the investment of your time and attention.
One-Day MBA In Marketing: A Complete Education For The Busy Professional
Michael Muckian
Prentice Hall Press
240 Frisch Court, Paramus, NJ 07652
ISBN 0735202079, $35.00, Hardcover, 316 pages, 1-800-631-8571
Increasing emphasis is placed on marketing in today's competitive world. Getting the word out to
the right market in the right way is crucial to success. If the right people learn about the product
or
service at the right time, in a way they can accept and believe, there is a good chance they will
buy.
And that's the principal objective. Marketing exists so sales can be made. That's why I got warm
feeling when I discovered that this book has two chapters on selling. But marketing can be
expensive and corporate executives want to understand what campaigns will cost and what kind
of
return on investment they can expect. There's a chapter on budgeting.
This is an impressive book. It covers a lot of material and organizes it well. Twenty-one chapters
and an index. Don't believe the title, though. It's going to take you more than a day to get through
this book. There's just so much there! Very complete. Note: This is the kind of book that serves
as a
great reference work as well as a cover-to-cover read.
The author begins with a chapter on some of the basics of marketing, then launches into the
importance of knowing your market and understanding positioning and branding. Chapter 4
addresses creating marketing plans, which, amazingly, isn't covered sufficiently in the real college
courses. Creative thinking is explored, then cleverly connected to strategic planning. Music to my
ears--someone who actually understands that marketing creativity has to actually do something to
produce strategic results, or it's useless.
Skill-focused chapters enable readers to learn about copywriting, design, and working with an
advertising agency. The chapter on product launch even includes discussion on business life
cycles.
Public relations is covered in two chapters, including one specifically addressing the all-important
media relations. A discussion on demographics is followed by a couple of chapters about on-line
marketing.
The book design is helpful. Large enough type and enough white space to make it very readable.
The language of the text also helps-interesting, flows well, appropriate stories.
For executives, business owners, marketers needing new perspectives and reinforcement, and for
students, this book is a treasure.
22 Keys To Creating A Meaningful Workplace
Tom Terez
Adams Media Corporation.
ISBN 1580622666, $24.95, Hardcover, 288 pages.
Highly recommended for bosses and workers, this book was a delightful surprise. I expected to
read
yet another business book directed solely toward owners, executives, and managers. This
specialized
audience will gain quite a lot from this book, but so will "ordinary employees." 22 Keys is an
Everyman's book, written in a tone that encourages focused initiative by all sorts of readers. Not
only does this approach add value to the book, it makes it much more salable in bulk to
companies
interested in changing their work environment.
Corporate culture has been defined as "what it feels like to work here." Terez has captured what
people are looking for in today's work environment in his exploration of what it takes to create a
meaningful workplace. Before going any further, it's important to list the 22 Keys. As you read
this
list, pause at each one and think about how it relates to your personal situation. Purpose,
Direction,
Relevance, Validation, Respect, Equality, Informality, Flexibility, Ownership, Challenge,
Invention,
Support, Personal Development, Dialogue, Relationship Building, Service, Acknowledgement,
Oneness, Self-Identity, Fit, Balance, and Worth.
Each key is presented in a chapter heavily seasoned with vignettes that hold the reader's attention.
Not all the stories have happy endings, making this book even more valuable. It's not a
quick-and-easy-guide-to-Nirvana, but is a realistic presentation. Questions challenge the reader's
thinking and, hopefully, stimulate behavior. Actions by others are described to build a sense of
confidence that the reader can also do these things and make a difference.
The book has a number of features that increase its readability and usefulness. Reality checks at
the
end of each chapter focus the reader's attention. Did you get the message?
Quotations, liberally sprinkled throughout the book, stimulate thought. I felt the author could
have
done with a few less quotes, but that's a very minor issue. One of the pages I turned down (there
were many) marks a quote by Albert Einstein: "Not everything that can be counted counts, but
not
everything that counts can be counted." When we're all looking to measure our performance, yet
at
the same time achieve life-work balance, the quote is meaningful. Ah! Meaningful. The objective
of
the book: well-achieved.
This book will be around for a while. It fits comfortably with what needs to be done in the world
of
work-in the private sector, in government, in non-profits, in education. If it isn't on your shelf yet,
now is the time to get a copy, read it, and share it.
Life Is Not Work. Work Is Not Life: Simple Reminders For Finding Balance In A 24-7
World
Robert K. Johnston and J. Walker Smith
Wildcat Canyon Press
2719 Ninth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
ISBN 1885171545, $13.95, Softcover, 237 pages.
We live in a rush-rush world filled with a myriad of activities that demand our time and challenge
our priorities. More and more people are talking about balance, life-work balance. A theologian
and
a corporate executive (a nice balance in itself) got together and wrote a little book that may bring
you some serenity and perspective.
Life is Not Work is one of those little books you often see next to the cash register in book stores
or
gift shops. An impulse buy. Except this one is more expensive at $13.95.
It offers more than just little quotations, though. The little essays, personal stories, make this book
a
cross between a quote book and a Chicken Soup for the Soul volume.
The authors bring us 137 of these short, easy-to-read essays, organized into twenty categories.
Listing the categories will give you a sense of the content you'll discover: Balance, Time, Work,
Living, Play, Spirituality, Wholeness, Empowerment, Strength, Joy, Stress, Materialism, Repose,
Wonder, Nurture, Happiness, Authenticity, Integrity, Community, and Fulfillment. Have I
whetted
your appetite? Consider the background and perspective of the authors and slide into your easy
chair
to think about the balance in your life. Forewords from the authors will help you understand who
they are and where they're "coming from." A bibliography completes the book, giving the reader
an
extra sense of connection to the messages and their sources.
This book will rest comfortably, waiting for its next opportunity, next to the bed in our family's
guest room. Be my guest. Read this book gently and contemplate your life-work balance.
The 2,000 Percent Solution
Donald Mitchell, Carol Coles, Robert Metz
AMACOM
ISBN 0814404766, $24.95, hardcover, 258 pages
One of my all-time favorite books is Eliahu Goldratt's "The Goal." As a Certified Management
Consultant, I have often recommended the book and its concept of discovering bottlenecks,
eliminating them, and moving forward to greater accomplishment. That's the theme of this book,
as
well, so I was excited about delving into the content. I wasn't disappointed at all.
Turning to the Table of Contents, I was concerned that there were only two sections in the book.
Somehow, I expected more. Two sections: Free Your Organization from Mind-Forged Manacles
and A Stallbuster's Guide in Eight Steps. Hmmm. Is it that easy? The foreword: "The book's
fundamental premise is that no matter how successful your organization is, it is performing way
below its easily achievable potential." Whew! Then the authors assert that complacency is the
primary reason for the frustrating gap between achievement and potential. Complacency? I want
to
read more. That feeling crept in throughout the book: I want to read more.
The design of the book makes it easy to read. It flows. The authors tell us story after story to
illustrate their points. Chapters full of thought-provoking stories. And each chapter starts with an
italicized paragraph to help the reader understand the chapter and its importance. The chapters are
organized into short sections which make it easy to get the gist and the point. It's like participating
in
a lively conversation with others who have "been there, done that." You'll learn from a treasure
chest of experiences. An afterword will help get you started by suggesting specific tasks to
accomplish. The book is indexed, as well.
Stallbusting. The authors contend that there are all sorts of things that cause stalls. Stall.
Dictionary
definition: to come to a standstill. When that happens, organizations get bogged down, don't
make
progress, and don't achieve their goalsor potential. In page after page, you will understand what
may
be getting in your way, pick up ideas, and be inspired to take action to make a difference.
Happily,
the book is practical, not theoretical, so it will be well-read and well-used. After completing the
book, I envision that readers will venture forth to combat stalls and build much more productive
organizations. Stallbusters could be the corporate version of the popular film, Ghostbusters. Read,
learn, and go get 'em!
Strategic Staffing: A Practical Toolkit For Workforce Planning
Thomas P. Bechet
AMACOM
ISBN 0-8144-0728-5, $79.95, Hardcover. 336 pages.
As corporate leaders look into the future, developing strategic plans, human resources must be a
vital component. Without people, most organizations would be unable to meet their objectives,
pay
their bills, and satisfy their owners. Many corporations have difficulty getting properly organized
and
filling positions with the right people even in present-day terms. Looking into the future, even a
few
months into the future, is beyond the scope of most human resource departments. They're too
busy
scrambling to address current problems.
There are three components necessary for solid strategic staffing-the planning for the company's
future workforce needs. First, you need a CEO and senior leadership team that is future-focused.
These key people must be good planners, with concern about all the resources they will need in
the
years ahead-including people. Second, you need human resource professionals who can
business-speak, who can understand the strategic plans being drawn by those top executives.
These
professionals must be able to determine what kinds of people will be needed-when, where, and
why.
Third, you need a good tool to forecast workforce supply and demand, be flexible in response to
changing plans, and be highly usable. "Strategic Staffing" is that tool.
Written by a human resource strategist with decades of experience under his belt, this book has it
all-in writing and on an accompanying CD-ROM. Included in the easy-to-read pages are forms,
examples, and diagnostics to help readers evaluate their own workforce strategies and
preparedness.
The CD-ROM includes templates, graphs, formulas, Excel spreadsheets, and even slide
presentations to convey the vital message to others in the organization.
The book is organized into four sections: Setting the Context, Developing the Strategic Staffing
Process, Implementing and Supporting Your Strategic Staffing Process, and Beyond Staffing
Plans:
Analyzing and Applying the Results. Three Appendices add more value, addressing frequently
asked
questions and providing guidance to using the extra material on the CD-ROM. A glossary and an
index contribute to the usefulness of the volume.
The sixteen chapters of the book are well-defined, enabling the reader to work from the Table of
Contents to move to sections where help might be found for specific problems. Readers will learn
about how to make strategic staffing a part of the organization, how to define staffing levels, and
how to make the whole thing work. Included are chapters about how to involve other mangers
(buy-in is important) and how to use the web for staff acquisition over the long term. Solid
costing
information brings a cold sense of reality to the picture. The cost of not doing what this book
advises can be considerably higher than following the author's helpful guidelines.
Bonus: The book's type size and design makes it easy to read and work with.
Transforming Work
Patricia E. Boverie and Michael Kroth
Persues Publishing
ISBN 0738205060, $30.00, Trade Paperback, 221 pages
This book is one of a series on New Perspectives in Organizational Learning, Performance, and
Change. The series is designed to showcase current theory and practice in human resources and
organizational development. While there are practitioners on the editorial board, this looks like
more
of an academic series. I'd describe this publication as one for professionals, but a volume that
individuals can benefit from, as well.
The focus of this book is passionate work. This concept will be difficult for many readers, since
passion is emotion and emotion and work are usually considered incongruent. The authors point
out,
early in the book, that "Passion is at the root of creative genius, personal transformation, and
notable
events. Passion is emotional energy; it stimulates life and energizes individuals to work toward
goals. New products, new ideas, creative ways to deliver services, inventions, an scientific
discoveries are produced because someone or some organization is passionate." OK. Passion
seems
to be consistent with what we're striving to accomplish in employment organizations today.
How might we approach this? The authors explain that they've done some research that connects
learning with passion. Put the concepts together and you get meaningfulness, and there are a lot
of
people looking for opportunities to feel a greater sense of meaning in what they do. Readers will
be
guided through an interesting study into passion, what it is, how it fits, and what to do with it.
Individuals will gain, but trainers and organizational development professionals will find it most
thought-provoking and stimulating.
The book is organized into eight chapters: Introduction to Passion and Work, The Foundations of
Passionate Work, Passion Transformation Process and Cycle, Occupational Intimacy, The
Discovering Process, The Designing Process, The Developing Process, and Transforming
Work---the five keys to achieving trust, commitment, and passion in the workplace. An index will
help you find your way back to those things you want to work with again. A number of exercises
are
included to stimulate your thinking and help you gain some sense of measurement in the
emergence
of passion in your personal and corporate life.
The book may seem a bit pricey for only a couple hundred pages, but there is a lot packed into
those
pages. The book is set mostly in 11 point type, so find a nice quiet place with good light to absorb
all the authors have to share.
Unlocking The Secrets Of Successful Women In Business
Linda Brakeall & Anna Wildermuth
Hawthorne Press
11 Arrow Wood, Suite 2D, Hawthorn Woods, IL 60047
0971020906, $24.95, trade paperback, 336 pages
Every once in a while we find a book that is well-meaning, has lots of good information, but was
written by consultants who were just a bit too commercial. It's obvious that Anna Wildermuth
wants
to help you with your appearance and Linda Brakefall wants to help you with your empowerment,
professionalism, and effectiveness. Their addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are
easy-too easy for this reviewer-to find in the book. OK, let's get past the commercial and the
authors
introducing themselves at the beginning of the book. Let's get into the meat.
The book is organized into 26 Keys for success. Each key is a chapter with text written by the
authors and a wide range of guest columnists-cameo appearances, if you will, by people with
expertise in the subject matter. These contributions, in a smaller type size, are a bit of a stopper as
you read the book, but build a sort of sense of community. Hmmm. Stopper. Like a speed bump
or a
curve in the road.
Actually, the whole book is designed with curves and speed bumps that slow the reader's pace so
more can be absorbed. The pages are filled with tips and quizzes and quotes and questions to
answer. Quite a bit to absorb-like the authors mixed a stew and threw everything in that would
add
to the "body." The "body" of this book is loaded. It's a potpourri of information and advice about
being taken seriously, rising to the top, charm and charisma, personal and professional style,
approachability, color, clothing, business travel, image, and working with your shape. You will
find
helpful information on business make-up, hair and grooming, business etiquette, interviewing for a
job, presentation skills, and public speaking.
The authors cover a wide range of topics, though I'm not sure that I agree with all they suggest.
Being a man, I asked a couple of businesswomen to look at this book with me so I could be sure
to
be fair. Their response included words like "inconsistent," "unprofessional," and "very basic."
There's a section in the back of the book offering resources for additional learning. By category,
you
will find what I believe are book titles and authors. There is insufficient detail for those who might
want to access additional information, but readers could use search engines on the world wide
web
to do their research.
The authors are, no doubt, fine professionals in their fields. Unfortunately, while it offers valuable
content, this book is not as professional as it could be. Advertisements at the end of every chapter
is
a bit much. The publishing of this book was managed by The Jenkins Group, says a statement on
the
back cover. They should have been more deeply involved to keep this stew from becoming stone
soup.
Handle With Care: Motivating And Retaining Employees
Barbara A. Glanz
McGraw-Hill
ISBN 0071400672, $16.95, Trade Paperback. 316 pages
If you want to retain employees, motivate them and care for them. OK, no-brainer. Arguing with
that kind of a statement is like being against Motherhood and Apple Pie. So, there has to be
something more to this book. And there is . . . after just a little bit of digging.
The book begins with a chapter on the research of what motivates employees. Not much new
here.
In chapter 2, the author reports the results of her original research into what motivates front-line
workers. She surveyed 1200 employees. There is some thought-provoking information here, but
nothing dramatic if you've spent much time in this kind of human resources research. For those
who
have not been exposed to this kind of data, this will be interesting material.
The real meat of this book is the author's C.A.R.E. model for motivating and retaining employees.
The acronym represents Creative Communication, Atmosphere and Appreciation for All, Respect
and Reason for Being, and Empathy and Enthusiasm. The model is explained, completing Part 1
of
the book.
Part 2 consist of Ideas and Stories from Managers, Employees, and Organizations Who Care.
Some
interesting case studies here. Chapter 6 includes a six page list of ideas from employees. Great
checklist of reward opportunities. Chapter 7 presents a brief survey used by one company to gain
input from employees about what kind of rewards they prefer.
In Part 3, the book begins to bubble with value. In over 200 pages, Glanz delivers dozens of
ideas,
explaining each idea and giving real-life examples of how the ideas are actually implemented in a
wide range of employer organizations. Chapter after chapter--full of ideas organized in an
easy-to-follow format according to the author's C.A.R.E. formula. This section of the book is the
real power which earns this book a good rating. The quality of the content and presentation in this
section overcomes the weaker beginning.
Four appendices add value, providing self-evaluations for managers (useful for trainers), a sample
employee survey, a culture test, and a bibliography. A worthwhile book for managers and
supervisors.
Roger E. Herman, Reviewer
www.hermangroup.com
Liana's Bookshelf
The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook
Editors, Murdoch Magazines
Murdoch Books
213 Miller Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060
ISBN 08641151051, CND $ 29.95, 304 pp,
There are many cookbooks on the market, but this one is unique in every aspect as it is written by
a
team of experts in food who are professionals in the field of vegetarianism. ' Vegetarian food has
come a long way since the days when it was regarded as the province of faddists,' the Editors say.
'
Now, it is fresh , modern and young an exciting cuisine nearly everybody is attracted to try it and
appreciate it.'
Packed with superb vegetarian recipes, from snacks to substantial meals, from desserts to drinks,
this book is the tribute to world-wide flavors and fresh produce.
'Our eating habits have evolved,' the editors write. '...our discovery of the infinite range of non-
meat
dishes from other lands, and the seemingly daily increase in the variety of vegetables ,grains, nuts
and pulses now available, have combined to make vegetarian cooking exciting and innovative and,
simultaneously, extended our appreciation of good food.'
The book is divided into various sections. It starts with facts about a Good Vegetarian Diet and
goes
on to the Healthy Food Pyramid which tells the readers what to eat and how much of each kind.
'EAT MOST: Grains, foods made from grains ,and fruit and vegetables. EAT LEAST: Sugar,
honey, butter, cream, margarine...'the authors write. Then come the Carbohydrates, Fibre and
Protein parts, all filled with useful info and advice ,as well as the food sources of the above.
'Finding
Fibre: Rolled oats, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, sultanas...' There is also info on Vegans Diet, a
Vitamins
and Minerals section , Fats and Rich-in-Nutrients foods and in the end are the Flavors and a brief
Guide on how to use the book. 'A WORLD OF FLAVORS : One of the great joys of vegetarian
eating lies in its versatility. There are many exotic detours available through the world's cuisines...'
the experts say. Next ,there is a list of herbs that match certain foods, a quite essential piece of
info
everybody needs to know in order to enhance their dishes: ' Mint with potatoes, cloves with
oranges,
garlic with just about anything savory...'
Next come the recipes, which are displayed in a highly attractive way that makes the readers want
to
try them! Soups and starters, snacks and party food, pies and pizzas (such as Silverbeet pie and
Harvest pie which look extremely appetizing ) ,grain and pulses are only a few of the categories
mentioned in the book. At the end of this section there are the Drinks; delicious, easy-to-prepare
drinks for every taste. Peach Dream, Banana Egg Flip, Energy Shake are only few of the lot. All
worth trying ! There is an index at the back of the book for easy reference. The book is fully
illustrated in colored photographs .
Packed with scrumptious vegetarian recipes, The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook contains all the
info the readers need to make the most of these mouth-watering foods. It caters for everybody
not
only for vegetarians- who would like to try something different, exotic, tasty, but most of all
healthy.
Related titles
Broader Than Beans, Lesley Waters
The Optimum Nutrition Bible, Peter Holford (www.ion.ac.uk)
The Functional Foods Revolution, Dr M .Heasman & Julian Mellentin
Turtles
Mervin F. Roberts
T.F.H. Publications, Inc.
1 TFH Plaza, 3rd & Union Avenue, Neptune City, NJ 07753
ISBN 0876669283, $5.99, 94 pp, 1-800-631-2188
Turtles as Pets was the author's first little book about pets, in 1954. It was a 32-pager, '...which is
still being read, but today pet keepers are more sophisticated and they want more useful facts,
more
accurate reasons,' the author says. 'So, here it is, completely re-written.'
This book includes 50 full-color photos and over 25 black and white photos. It presents
easy-to-follow advice about all aspects of selecting and caring for pet turtles.
The readers have all the info they need , such as getting started, feeding turtles, diseases and
ailments. A simplified, yet detailed book that is still popular .
The introduction deals with the anatomy of turtles supported by attractive illustrations. 'All turtles
are toothless. All have tails and eyelids but no external ears...,' M. F. Roberts writes.
Then comes Turtle Keeping which includes useful advice on how to care for these pets. It
mentions
all the risks involved, like Salmonella infection. 'This disease is similar to typhoid fever but is less
dangerous. It is best controlled by habitat cleanliness,' the author says.
Reproduction includes facts and striking photos, such as the one that a baby turtle is hatching
from
its egg. Feeding, Housing and Keeping aquatic and semi-aquatic and terrestrial species chapters
follow giving a lot of info and advice on turtles.
'In general, the semi-aquatic and fully aquatic turtles tend to prefer more meat in their diets than
do
the purely terrestrial species,' the author says.
'If you want your pet to be an inside pet, give it warmth and full-length daylight hours with
artificial
light right through the winter.'
'If you choose to keep terrestrial turtles you will find that many are long-lived and easy to
maintain.'
The last chapter is about Diseases and Ailments , a very important section everyone should read
before buying a turtle, especially those who have children.
'Aquatic turtles are often fed decayed or spoiling meat scraps which harbor Salmonella bacilli,' the
author says. '...no pet keeper should knowingly let children who suck their thumbs also put their
hands into an aquarium...'.
The book ends with a quick review of aquatic and semi-aquatic turtle-borne Salmonella. There is
also some reference to other publications.
Turtles is a well-organized book, clearly laid out and easy-to-read by both adults and
children.
It caters for all pet lovers who wish to know more about turtles, no matter if they intend to buy
one
or not. It is educational, interesting and highly informative.
The photographs are attractive and very helpful and all the facts are presented in an interesting
way.
So, if you are going to buy a turtle, or if you already have one, or even if you want to learn about
turtles, then this book is for you!
Related titles:
Sea Turtles, Jeff Ripple, ISBN 0896583155
Amphibians, Steve Grenard, ISBN 0876051379
Liana Metal
Reviewer
Hodgins' Bookshelf
Living History Chronicles
Gwilym Jones
General Store Publishing House
Box 28, 1694B Burnstown Road, Burnstown, ON, Canada K0J 1G0
ISBN 1-894263-50-2, $24.95, 227 pp., 1-800-465-6072
This collection arranges contributions alphabetically by author's surname. An average memoir
here
runs to about a page of the author's biography, four pages of wartime experiences, and a page of
photos and perhaps a map or mural or blank space - about six pages in all. However, individual
entries may be as brief as Paratrooper Frank West's two pages, or as lengthy as the 14 pages
devoted to Infantryman (Black Watch)/POW (Prisoner of War) MacGregor Roulston.
Each true story tends to make an easy read, but interest quotients naturally vary. Among other
things, some writers have pedestrian styles, while others add sparks of wit and the like.
The first story of the collection happens to be that of a woman who was a noncombatant
entertainer,
but these facts have no bearing whatsoever on her coming first; she owes her initial place in the
book
to the alphabetical order of the name her second husband gave her: Ackroyd.
Opinions are likely to differ on the following point, but I feel the 33 biographical sketches of the
participants in this collection of war stories must be of far greater interest to the persons
described,
and to their families and friends, than they are to me - and perhaps to others who likewise find
themselves unrelated to any of those 33.
To me, the book's chief fascination lies in the often remarkable experiences recounted, supported
by
the volume's quite copious graphics, which are more expensive to produce than plain text.
Should the price of this book seem high for a paperback, then, note that there are two group
photos,
plus two individual ones of each ex-warrior - one in uniform long ago, and another showing the
person's present face - tallying 68 author photos alone, then - plus 24 maps (index: see page 205),
21
badges/insignia, photos of murals typically showing warships and warplanes or battlefield scenes,
photos of foot patrols in Korea, etc.
The 1941-45 war in the Pacific is scarcely represented, except in the recurrent theme that after the
fall of the Third Reich in Europe, many service people received new orders to ship out and fight
the
Japanese ... only to have those orders cancelled with the dropping of atomic weapons upon Japan,
bringing that war to an abrupt halt.
The book would have been very different had it been compiled in, say, Winnipeg rather than
Toronto - Winnipeg having been home to the contigents of about 2,000 largely untrained
Grenadiers
and Rifles (some of whom had in fact never fired a rifle!) sent early in WW II to hold Hong Kong
against 50,000 Japanese troops. See www.valourandhorror.com for these and many further
details.
At some point, I must explain for fellow non-military types that Welsh-native Gwilym Jones's
"MM"
is evidently the Military Medal - a British decoration, I believe. One of the points on which I cling
to
my profound ignorance is whether or not we now have uniquely Canadian decorations for merit,
valour, etc. in military service; there are at any rate uniquely Canadian civilian honours nowadays,
such as the Order of Canada ... but the men and women veterans who figure in Jones's book left
the
armed forces many years ago, and seem unlikely to have been decorated under any new,
all-Canadian guidelines.
Canada has never had a corps of Marines (so handy for invading other countries from the sea!)
and
has had a Canadian Coast Guard only as a civilian service responsible for navigational aids, for
icebreaking and some Arctic provisioning, and, to an extent, for search & rescue. In recent years
the
CCG was taken from Transport Canada and merged into the Fisheries and Oceans dept., which
until
then had solely had its own, separate civilian fleet.
Thus during WW II Canada in essence had only her army, navy, and airforce as foreign-going
armed
services. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police or "Mounties" were and are an armed force, but go
foreign only very occasionally in the process of enforcing Canadian law, e.g., on the high seas, or
when helping other countries organize and train police forces.
What the people of both sexes who contributed memoirs to this book chiefly share today is their
membership in the Royal Canadian Legion's Toronto/Highland Creek Branch 258 and its Living
History Speakers Bureau - the Bureau's name explaining the seemingly redundant terms,
"History"
and "Chronicles", in the book's title.
I have no idea what branch of the RCL is located in, say, Winnipeg, but it certainly is not
258!
Even a collection of 33 different personal stories is far from covering the total Canadian
experience
in the wars in question - particularly concerning our 40,000 WW II fatalities, such as my cousin
Leslie was: a bomber pilot lost without a trace over the English Channel, circa 1940. (It has
always
seemed to me the height of irony that those who gave the most receive the least reward afterward
...
but how could matters be arranged in any other way? This problem of assuring equity leaves me
amongst those who feel totally stumped.)
The book does however make a significant sampling among those wars' survivors, and it is
important that such documentation has not been attempted too late. An RCN veteran related by
marriage to my family, one who'd survived the Battle of the Atlantic in corvettes, was silenced
forever by natural causes, a year or two ago - a form of attrition that must be occurring
everywhere.
The sampled authors served in numerous different Canadian units, except that some few represent
all
the British armed services save the Royal Marines, and one was in the Polish Army. The three
women among them were in the CWAC (Canadian Women's Army Corps), the RCAF (WD) or
Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division, and the (British) Women's Royal Navy Service. The
three men from the British Army had been in the Infantry, Artillery, and Airborne (SAS) - and this
last is still sworn to secrecy. There also is a native of the northern Netherlands province of
Friesland,
but he had immigrated to Canada at age 6, in 1930.
One man in this group tried and tried to enlist in the various fighting forces, but was thin and
didn't
meet the minimum weight criterion until finally being accepted for service only in Canada, on
speculation that he could eventually gain the necessary bulk to go overseas; then, once trained, he
was utilized in training others to drive tracked and wheeled army vehicles. It appears he never got
sent overseas in the war but, as he points out, German U-boats carried the war right here,
torpedoing ships and causing other havoc by penetrating as far inland as perhaps Trois-Rivie`res,
about halfway between Que'bec and Montre'al.
Canada might have been considered a fringe war zone, then, and, preparing in advance of need,
we
installed air-raid sirens, appointed civilian block air-raid wardens complete with tin hats, held
drills,
and so forth, besides instituting rationing and many other measures.
Members of the Forces who had volunteered for overseas service but had been kept in Canada
wore
a special G S emblem visibly conferring the status of at least being willing to risk everything for
their
country.
A woman RCAF member among the book's authors also didn't go overseas, but was trained to
assemble and service aircraft instruments. Apart from her time in training, she spent the early part
of
the war assembling oxygen masks, and then was set to painting radium dials for fuel gauges and
the
like, to facilitate night flying - speaking of which, I've heard that such artisans used often to lick
their
paint brushes to give the bristles nice sharp tips, resulting in their ingestion of far too much highly
radioactive radium; in fact, ANY amount is too much.
Somewhat more that halfway through the book occurs the story of British Paratrooper Ronald F.
Johnson who, we are told, was 18 in 1956. A bit of arithmetic suggests he was born in 1938 and
was
therefore too young for either WW II or the Korean War. Instead he served in Gibraltar, Cyprus,
and Jordan in the late 1950s. He thus is an exception among those who, compiler Gwilym Jones
informs us, were "veterans of the Second World War and Korean War".
Johnson mentions semi-humorously one Charlie C. who, in Nicosia, "caught a piece of shrapnel in
the rear end". That happening reminds me of a forestry student I knew at a research camp in
1948,
who told of having been the only survivor when an enemy had lobbed a grenade in through the
open
hatchway of their tank. He himself had a cavity about the size and shape of half a North American
football, or perhaps less than half a Rugby ball as used elsewhere in the world, blown out of the
solid
flesh of one of his buttocks. Despite the marvelous job some surgeon had done in patching him up
as
well as possible, just how he had managed to stand, walk, perhaps even run, I've never quite
understood. I am quite ready to believe, at any rate, that there was nothing humorous in the
predicament into which he'd suddenly been flung.
I'd hazily understood that "The Legion" was only for "real" war veterans, i.e., for ones who'd
served
in actual theatres of "shooting" war overseas ... but from this book it seems I have been at least
partially mislead. The first story, for example, is told by a stage performer who only once
happened
to catch sight of a German SS man, escaped from a truckload of prisoners, in a theatre in
Nijmegen,
Netherlands. It seems however that she, and a number of others too, qualified well enough to bear
the name of veteran.
Actually, that seems a thoroughly good thing. Who needs more rank-pulling or other forms of
belittlement and ritualized unpleasantness, once the people involved have all received their
discharges and are on as close as they'll ever get to an even footing?
Almost as soon as World War II broke out in September '39, some of the most curious
arrangements imaginable were made to get war materiel into rapid production. In centretown
Ottawa, for example, an existing streetcar barn was hurriedly pressed into service to build training
aircraft for the RCAF. Tram tracks still ran into and perhaps right through the new "aircraft
factory";
completed aircraft fuselages and wings were simply loaded aboard flatbed streetcar chassis and
rolled out and through the busy streets to, I suppose, Ottawa Rockcliffe Airport (Ottawa Uplands
Airport, now the Ottawa International site, had no tram access) where the construction, outfitting
and testing of the new craft were completed. Ferry pilots would then fly them away to training
fields
that were being thrown together at breakneck pace all over the country.
In that environment of utmost urgency, it may perhaps be better understood why airforce rather
than
contractors' personnel were used to paint instrument dials; whatever did the job got the nod. More
than once, a reader of these wartime stories is likely to need to see matters in this perspective,
whenever what look like second-rate arrangements were rammed through. Consider, after all, that
the entire war ran its course in about five years, a period of time that many a peacetime scheme
might spend merely under analysis and discussion!
Can I recommend this book, then, and if so, on what basis? Well, it's certainly no compendium on
"Canada at War" - but if we accept that it's a product of a number of individuals centred upon
Toronto, almost all of whom served in the European theatre during WW II or else in Korea, it
does
provide a spot sampling of experiences of mid-20th-century warfare which can both inform us
and,
for those who don't feel too appalled, even entertain us (noting that some folk actually go looking
for horror films and the like, in the personal conviction that those are "entertaining".)
Here we get a worm's-eye view, on the whole - not a strategic or commanding-officer's overview.
This scope too, however, can have its uses, such as to some future author of historical war novels
who will not have the opportunity to experience that style of warfare, but who may nonetheless
learn
of it vicariously by reading these very "Living History Chronicles", and like sources.
Those who hope to understand the "average joe/jane" and his/her times during WW II and/or the
Korean conflict have the most to gain.
Lazarus, Arise
Nicholas Kilmer
Poisoned Pen Press
6962 E. First Ave. Ste. 103, Scottsdale, AZ, USA, 85251
1890208809, $24.95; 213 pp., 1-800-421-3976
Nicholas Kilmer was, says his blurb on the back flap of this book's dustjacket, a teacher for many
years; now he is a painter and art dealer. However, the book's front-cover design (illustrating
Lazarus's miraculous revival from the grave by Jesus) was created by an apparent kinsman, Jacob
Kilmer, according to the back cover.
The mediaeval-style painting - either the story's circa-1400 parchment version, purporting to be
from
Duke Philip the Bold's `Limbourg Bible', or its modern representation as attributed to the other
Kilmer - may play a limited role, depending on how one sees the novel's genre.
Words on the dust jacket call the book an "art mystery". True, it outlines plentiful research, etc.,
into
the painting's origin, history, and value, and many of the tale's characters are dead painters or live
art
dealers/agents - many of the lot none too ethical. Yet the final outcome is double murder. Is the
genre really "murder mystery", then?
The Lazarus painting's role in the tale being enigmatic, the use of Lazarus's name in the title may
be
questioned. Supposing the genre to be murder mystery, the book might better have been named
"Death, Sweet Death", for reasons that become evident toward the novel's finale.
The painting has the chief function of bringing the protagonist, Fred, into contact with other
characters in the drama, but to what extent do the characteristics of the painting matter to the
story,
and to this review? I still can't decide, but it may be helpful to you if I summarize the Lazarus
story
as described in the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 11.
Jesus had been performing miracles, and the orthodox Jewish clergy felt threatened that He was
drawing away their power base, a problem shortly to culminate in Jesus's trial before Pontius
Pilatus.
"What is the life of this one man, Jesus, compared with the integrity of our entire system?" the
argument went. In that perspective, the Lazarus episode seems to have been fated as the
proverbial
last straw sealing Jesus's doom.
Jesus apparently dawdled on his travel toward Jerusalem while He learned that His friend Lazarus
was seriously ill, then dead, and finally buried. At last Jesus arrived at Lazarus's sepulchre, where
He
would perform His last miracle to raise his friend to life again.
Verse 38 describes the tomb as follows: "It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it." That rough
enclosure is nonetheless depicted, in the novel's cover illustration, as a finely and expensively
carved
coffin of marble or alabaster, with a series of gilded medallions on its side and a long, precisely
fitted
lid of the same stone.
Well yes, technically "a stone lay upon it" - but since when is a casket worthy of a Duke's
interrment
the same as "a cave"?
Kilmer writes into his story an expert in such matters, Hannah Bruckmann by name, who
recognizes
the painting as the work of a family of mediaeval artists surnamed Limbourg who hailed from the
town then spelled Nimwegen, now Nijmegen, originally the Roman outpost called Novio
Magus.
(I happen to know that area pretty well, my wife being from nearby Arnhem. Both towns lie in
Gelderland, but Nijmegen borders on Limbourg, today's Limburg, divided between Germany and
the
Netherlands; I have in-laws living on the open Dutch side, about a 5-minute stroll from the
forested
German area.)
Those Limbourg-family artists also created a "Book of Hours" containing a closely related
illustration, so that protagonist Fred and technical expert Hannah hold the following exchange, on
page 103:
`Fred said, "You were suspicious when you saw the `Lazarus'. `That sarcophagus is familiar,' you
said, or `too familiar.'"
`"Well, it is. You get exactly the same image, the same dying Greek of a naked corpse, the same
carved coffin a duke could afford but not Lazarus, even half of the same surprised mourners, in
the
`Lazarus' Herman Limbourg painted for the Duke of Berry's `Book of Hours'.'
Ducal expectations had outweighed Biblical testimony, then. Kilmer's grasp of power-based
mediaeval art, relayed to us by his Hannah character, dazzlingly emerges as the first half of the
story
unfolds.
At first I suspected the two-handed scythes of three farm workers in the painting's background
constituted an anachronism, but research showed that the implement was invented by the Romans
(no date being mentioned by my source), and may well have been available to agriculture in
Jesus's
day - not to say during the Mediaeval era in which the artwork was supposedly painted.
This illustration's relevance to Kilmer's tale is that it accidentally comes into the possession of
Fred
Taylor, the protagonist of Volume Five in a series of art- (or perhaps murder-) mystery novels,
the
previous books in this presumed series evidently being named, "Harmony in Flesh and Black",
"Man
With a Squirrel", "O Sacred Head", and "Dirty Linen". It quickly creates a sensation in the art
world.
As my readers will know, I'm interested in the structures of novel series, but I swear I didn't know
of
any such connection when I chose this book to study! Now that I'm started, though ...
Sequel novels present a special challenge to the author, if not also to the reader.
At one extreme, should the author not recapitulate previous volumes, a new reader discovering
one
of the later books may be mystified by unexplained references to events, personalities, etc. of the
earlier volumes; one's bewilderment is like that of entering a movie theatre long after the show's
beginning, so that the background is missing.
At the opposite extreme, excessive recapitulations, particularly if clumsily detailed, can nearly
drive
established readers up the wall.
How does Kilmer's 2001 serial novel rate? I find he errs in omitting a sufficient background.
Established readers of his series may understand him without a proper recap but, as a newcomer
to
the series, I didn't. Thus when someone named Molly (Riley?) was mentioned without explanation
on page 5, I wondered at first whether she was Fred's secretary, professional partner, daughter,
mistress, wife, or perhaps even a bridge partner? Some of these guesses fairly soon appear wrong,
though; a Sam, who is Molly's son but is apparently not Fred's, and a Terry, evidently short for
Theresa rather than Terrence, also appear, but they seem too old to be Fred's grandchildren. All in
all my guess, based on "Lazarus, Arise", is that Molly and Fred have a common-law
marriage.
With exceptions noted hereunder, Kilmer's writing style is reminiscent of Lawrence Block's Bernie
Rhodenbarr series, but moved from New York to Boston, and not as literary. If we may give the
word "art" its broad interpretation, I'd say the genre of their books is precisely the same. However
Kilmer, as a specialist in the graphic arts, will not likely be as polished a writer - all other things
being equal - as is a literary specialist such as Block, who even has written a guidebook for
novelists.
In fact Kilmer's writing irritates me in two specific ways, while his editor seems asleep at the
switch.
(Why, oh why don't editors edit or, failing that, then strongly advise their authors how to
self-edit?)
Firstly, protagonist Fred Taylor indulges in a great deal of talking aloud to himself - soliloquizing
is
a more dignified word - even if the men in white suits have yet to catch him in their butterfly
nets.
Secondly, Kilmer repeats the clause, "Fred said", or "Fred" followed by some similar verb, entirely
too often.
To exemplify both faults, from page 91 I quote these brief soliloquies:
"Get information. Don't speculate," Fred said.
"So, we talk to the neighbors," Fred decided.
"That'll have to wait," Fred said.
That simple, declarative sentence structure is so unvaried as to grow as boring as "See Dick run"
in
a child's reading primer.
Summing up "Lazarus, Arise", I find it something of a mishmash that comes to an end, rather than
to
a conclusion, and that leaves me dissatisfied. I hope however that other readers will appreciate
this,
or perhaps some other work of Kilmer's, better than I; for whoever wrote the inside-back-cover
blurb calls this book "no less than masterful," suggesting there should by rights be ample reason
for
such a hope.
The Black Pit ... and Beyond
J. Gordon Mumford
General Store Publishing House
Box 28, 1694 Burnstown Road, Burnstown, ON, Canada K0J 1G0
ISBN 1-894263-19-7; price Can$19.95, plus Can$5.05 if sent by mail
138 pp., incl. 2 simple maps., tel. 1-800-465-6072);
Author Gordon Mumford was a British citizen at the time he describes, in the 1940s - although,
with
his family, he would move to British Columbia, Canada in 1980. His memoirs tell us chiefly of his
wartime experiences as junior radio officer in his second, third, and fourth ships, although his first
vessel is several times mentioned in passing and in minimal detail. Even less discussed is his fifth
ship, mentioned but not even named at this book's end.
These memoirs are organized in three Parts relating to three voyages or cruises in different ships,
from late 1942 to early 1945.
In Part One, "The Western Approaches [to the British Isles]", he describes the terror of finding
his
Transatlantic convoy beset by "wolf packs" of enemy U-boats or submarines (U was German for
Untersee, "undersea".) This harrowing episode occurs in a North Atlantic area implicitly
compared
to the black pit of Hades; for anti-sub aircraft of that era, when powered flight had only 39 years
of
developmental history, had insufficient range to patrol and fight enemies that far from land.
It was an area, then, where a convoy was on its own, the available escorting naval forces then
consisting chiefly of corvettes - originally little more than converted whaling vessels, in emergency
production since the outbreak of war in 1939, although vastly improved classes would
follow.
The entire naval squadron escorting that particular convoy was Canadian, save the British rescue
ship, HMS "Toward", of unstated class but presumably fitted out for hospital use. The RCN
(Royal
Canadian Navy) escort ships were the river-class destroyer HMCS "St. Laurent", and the five
town-class corvettes, HMCS "Chilliwack", "Shediac", "Napanee", "Battleford", and
"Kenogami".
Convoy ONS 154 had formed off Malin Head, Ireland, for a voyage via New York to Curacao in
the Caribbean, to fetch a load of high-octane aviation fuel. It reached the Black Pit area around
Christmas of 1942, a season dreaded for its awful weather and frigid seawater, for its short days
and
long nights. This was the convoy that would also be written of by Henry Revely in "The Convoy
the
Nearly Died" (Wm. Kimber, London, 1979).
Mumford was the Third (most junior) Radio Officer aboard the "Scottish Heather", in a day when
radio communication was transmitted and read in Morse Code, although no doubt further
encrypted
in case of enemy interception. He is on duty for two four-hour watches or shifts per 24-hr. day,
from
midnight to 4 a.m. (the First Watch or "graveyard shift"), and from noon to 4 p.m. (Afternoon
Watch).
A black-and-white (there was little colour photography at the time) aerial photograph of such a
convoy in the process of assembling is spread out over the front, spine, and back covers of this
book, the hue actually being a sort of leaden blue-black suggesting the sombre mood of the
wartime
ocean. Distant ships nearly vanish in the haze, while others are overprinted on the back cover and
thereby made somewhat indefinite to count. The view shows between 50 and 60 merchant
(commercial) ships, but there likely were additional vessels, perhaps many of them, outside the
camera's field of view.
Some such ships would have been slow tubs the U-boats could run rings around, and the entire
convoy was obliged to travel at the speed of the slowest; for sticking together was the only
practicable way to take shelter under naval protection.
Superimposed on the front cover is a smallish b&w photo of a lifeboat crowded with survivors of
a
torpedoed "merchant ship" - generically so called to include freighters, tankers, and any other
categories present, such as troop ships.
As further graphical materials, each Part of this book ends with a map which, I feel, should have
been placed at the Part's BEGINNING. It's true that the Table of Contents reveals the existence
and
location of each such map, but I habitually consult Tables of Contents only for reference
purposes,
not during pleasure readings - and I suspect doing so is quite usual. I thus only discovered the
maps
for Parts One and Two after I no longer needed them.
Their better placement would have been easy. There is a big blank space on page viii opposite the
beginning of Part One on page 1, where the Part One (or Black Pit) map could have been ideally
placed to inform one's reading of the Part One text. Then, that first map having been moved ahead
fifty-odd pages, the Part Two map could have come from page 98 to the vacated spot on page 52,
opposite the start of Part Two's text. Likewise, the Part Three map should have been printed on
page 98, not page 138 where this book essentially ends.
U-boats certainly held the upper hand for a time in the Battle of the Atlantic, having been well
ahead
in the technological arms race at the outbreak of hostilities. As the war progressed, though,
improved aircraft became available, while simple depth charges, developed in WW I and requiring
that the attacking ship pass right over the attacked U-boat, were supplemented or possibly
replaced
by ahead-firing squid and hedgehog anti-submarine weapons.
Another important factor aboard the escort vessels was ASDIC, actually the acronym of a
committee formed in 1918, an echo-based technology comparable to underwater RADAR, later
renamed SONAR for "SOund Navigation And Ranging". This system, which generated "pings"
and
measured their return time, could locate a submerged sub and guide the surface attack vessel to a
position where her munitions might become effective. No doubt Sonar improved as the war
progressed, but for whatever cause, Mumford mentions no actual successes scored by naval
escorts,
anyplace in his book - possibly out of a longstanding if ill-advised antipathy between the fighting
and
merchant navies?
A onetime colleague of mine spent the war flying patrols in British-built, four-engined Sunderland
seaplanes over the Atlantic from a base in, I think, Dakar, Senegal, Africa, dropping depth
charges
set to fire at 30 feet depth around, and firing guns upon, any U-boat they could catch on the
surface
- to which tactics, however, the Germans soon replied with the schnorkel (our "snorkel"), which
allowed U-boats much increased submerged cruising time. Evidently the Sunderland, too, lacked
the
range to patrol the Black Pit area.
Also during the war, nighttime U-boat detection improved vastly in moving from ships' guns firing
"snowflake" parachute flares, as devised in 1941 and mentioned by author Mumford as seeing
much
use in 1942, to radar. To quote from "The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea", Peter Kemp,
Ed., Oxford University Press, (c) 1976, "The breakthrough for shipborne radar occurred in 1940
with the British invention of the magnetron ... by 1943, 1.9 centimetre wavelength sets were
capable
of detecting U-boats' periscopes ..." This would have meant that even submerged U-boats could
be
detected, and many were destroyed in consequence. (I speculate that a U-boat running with her
periscope down, but with her schnorkel up, could likewise be detected by radar.)
Before radar, though, merchant ships such as Mumford's were proverbial "sitting ducks",
particularly at night.
With no pretence of elegance, Mumford's plainspoken memoirs are told not only in the first
person,
but also in the present tense. Although my personal feeling is one of slight discomfort with that
style,
it does have great immediacy. A greater you-are-there impact could only be created by writing in
the
second person singular, plus the present tense - "You scramble down the netting, sometimes
hanging
above the inky ocean free of the ship's side, sometimes being slammed against the steel plating, all
but destroying your knuckles; until at last you allow yourself simply to drop the last foot or two,
as
the lifeboat rides up on a wave as if purposely to meet you ..." I've read only one story told in the
second person, and I didn't like the mood of compulsion it produced - but certainly the job CAN
be
done that way. It is not, though, the POV used by Mumford; the foregoing, brief sample simply
exemplifies how a 2nd.-person story might read.
The first-person perspective strikes me as closest to the way we live our daily lives, each staying
strictly within his or her own skin, and Mumford manages it rather like an old salt telling some
friends of his life's high points over a mug of dark ale in some smoky waterfront dive.
Here's a last point concerning style: although Mumford has lived in Canada for over two decades,
he
cannot have forgotten the English terms he used for over five decades. He (or his editor)
nonetheless
writes "truck" where an Englishman would write "lorry". North American readers should have no
difficulty in understanding his use of words.
Convoy ONS 154 begins its suffering when the "Empire Union", lead ship in the convoy's twelfth
column, is torpedoed in the wee hours of the morning of 27 December 1942. It being the young
Mumford's radio-office watch, he logs in her distress call, but it is solely the rescue ship's task to
search for survivors. Some minutes later it's the turn of the "Melrose Abbey", going down without
a
chance to transmit any message. Third is a Dutch ship, the "Soekaboemi". Fourth is the "Kind
Edward", which suffers a second explosion when her boilers blow. Nonetheless Mumford, who
has
contracted a 'flu on top of being seasick, and who is running a fever and much weakened,
manages
to drop straight off to sleep after being relieved by a different "Sparks" who has the next
watch.
Now he has a chance of up to eight hours of sleep, but is called to breakfast at 8 a.m. He is
however
too badly "off his feed" to eat.
He gets through the Afternoon Watch too, and has returned to bed when the "Scottish Heather"
herself is racked by the explosion of a torpedo striking somewhere near her bow. Its violence is
such
that his cabin door is blown from its hinges, to land upon him in bed. His entire compartment is
now
a shambles ...
Stresses such as those men lived under may be relieved by some very rough talk, and I suspect
that
despite the many profanities and obscenities embedded in the dialogue Mumford records, he may
if
anything have expurgated almost as much as he retains. This is not a book for those who may be
intolerably shocked, then, but it IS highly realistic.
There are many ways to die or be injured at sea in wartime, even without counting such standard
hazards as heart attack or stroke, diseases and other medical conditions, falls and other accidents,
murder, and suicide. When a torpedo, shell, or other explosive missile strikes a ship, one can be
instantly slaughtered by the blast itself, or even at some distance by shrapnel dispersed in all
directions. Fire is also a frequent, and frequently deadly consequence of such a blast, and in badly
ventilated places one may be stricken by such gases as carbon monoxide or even cyanide. Some
victims may well be untouched, yet unable to escape - sealed in by jammed hatches, for example -
as
the ship founders. Persons cast, falling, or jumping into the sea may drown, or may die of
hypothermia (low body temperature). Anywhere, people may be crushed or pinned by falling
masts
or other debris, or struck even by human bodies falling or leaping from above. Mumford later
hears
that one of his classmates has been killed by flames spreading over oil-slicked water. Even when
one
is supposedly safe in a lifeboat, there is a terrible fear of a second torpedo or other explosion, such
as from bursting boilers of a steamship, before the boat can make her offing.
The boats and any swimming men must also get far away from the mother ship before she sinks,
lest
they be towed under in the vortex of her rapid founder. Mumford identifies two related,
potentially
deadly hazards of being too near a torpedoed ship; one is that timbers and the like may come
shooting back to the surface after escaping from the plummeting hulk, doing so with such force as
to
maim or kill people and destroy boats not actually towed under in the vortex. What nearly carries
off
Mumford and his boatmates, though, is letting their boat too nearly approach the gaping hole
blown
in the ship's forward plating, into which the sea pours to create a situation comparable to being
caught in the currents leading to a waterfall.
Even after escaping all those menaces, in the dark they find their lifeboat sinking! For she's been
shot
through and through with shrapnel from the torpedo burst.
War is indeed hell, just as they say. I won't tell you how the episode proceeds and ends, though,
being conscious that I might spoil the story by giving too much away.
Obviously Mumford survives, but he is not entirely whole in spirit for some time. Even sent home
on
leave, nightmares plague him.
Nor are all his evil memories from the war. He then had, and may have even today, many a
nightmare involving his dysfunctional, supposedly religious educators, some of whose own
learning
seems to have been limited to the last seven words of the first (of three, 1612-1680) author
Samuel
Butler's couplet in "Hudibras", reading -
"Love is a boy, by poets styled,
Then spare the rod, and spoil the child."
That is, whereas Butler seems to preach that one should, out of love, spare the rod despite some
risk
of spoiling the child, others seem to have missed the first line and concluded - out of hatred rather
than love, perhaps? - that one must NOT spare the rod, lest the child be spoiled!
Of the apparently few nuns and monks lacking sadistic inclinations who had taught Mumford, one
had instead been a paedophile - frightening the boy yet worse.
The years of maltreatment at school were complemented by his mother's frequent, stern
inveighing
against every form and manifestation of sexuality. ("Masturbation will stunt your growth!") The
combined impacts of nearly all authority figures in his life - his more moderate father having died
early - made him a severely repressed and guilt-ridden youth ... not to say, I'd expect, very nearly
a
mental case. Although normally attracted to females, he found himself unable to relate to them
properly, in part because he seemed unable to dissociate them from the many belt-whippings their
kind had meted out in his boyhood, or from his mother's dire warnings and explicit embargoes. To
say he was profoundly sexually harassed seems only to begin describing his difficulties.
Some of Mumford's tormentors had in fact instilled such hatred in him that he takes a vicious
delight
when one is killed in the war. He learns bitterness even toward his mother, for when he is home
on
leave between his Part Two and Part Three voyages, she interferes with and aborts his only
opportunity to date a charming and desirable young woman, a friend of the family who might have
become the perfect antidote for the psychical damage wrought by others.
These themes recur time and again in Mumford's memoirs. They clearly represent a huge
"hangup".
To say that "discipline did him no harm" would be a most dreadful lie!
Thus as the book's end draws nearer, a reader wonders whether young Gordon will EVER find a
normal life or, as to that, whether even old Gordon has done so even yet, although his former
oppressors have quite possibly gone to a place reserved for the cruel and unjust?
There is good reason for hope, though, as he dedicates his book, "To my wife and partner,
Barbara
..." Since his Author's Note warns us that "many personal names have been changed", it's even
possible that he has married one of the women so sadly mentioned in this book.
After his home leave at the end of Part One, Mumford is assigned to a different ship, the "Empire
Harmony", receiving a promotion with an additional stripe on his sleeve. It is now that the title
words "... and Beyond" begin to apply, for Part Two is subtitled "The Rock of Gibraltar".
"The Mediterranean" would have been more representative, but at all events, Part Two begins
with
our protagonist staring through binoculars a the coast of Morocco, Africa, and with Gibraltar also
in
sight. His ship will put in at "Gib" once or twice; much more of his time, though, will pass farther
east in the Mediterranean theatre.
The "Empire Harmony" is now on the order of 800 nautical miles or 900 statute miles south of his
previous voyage's Black Pit; she remains well north of the Tropic of Cancer but, compared with
the
previous episode's, this is a far warmer, sunnier world - besides which, it is now mid-April of
1943,
and hence a warmer, sunnier time of year, too.
His is an unusual ship. Besides having the holds typical of a bulk carrier, the "Empire Harmony" is
distinguished by carrying two huge 60-ton cranes which allow her to lie against piers or the like,
in
ports near the warring armies' front lines, where she was used to replace war-damaged land-based
hoisting machinery. Thus the Allies are able to land heavy tanks at Naples in Italy, as one
example,
despite the great damage the port facilities have sustained.
Naples is one of the ports in which young Gordon meets a strikingly lovely lass, in this case a rare
blonde, blue-eyed Italian, who gives him a clear invitation - and from whom he all but runs, even
though it was wartime and he couldn't be certain of living to see the morrow. Afterward, as he
curses his hangup, we can only sigh with him yet again.
Let's note that Mumford, as a radio specialist, was never officially involved in ship navigation. It
thus is understandable that he and/or his editor writes erroneously of port and starboard "forward
(or for'ard) quarters". Mathematically, four quarters do indeed make a whole - but a ship with
four
quarters, two up forward, would be like a person with four buttocks, two of them in front.
I quote an unimpeachable authority on nautical terminology, "The Oxford Companion to Ships
and
the Sea": "QUARTER[S], the two after parts of the ship, one on each side of the centreline.
Strictly,
a ship's port or starboard quarter is on a bearing 45 degrees from the stern, but the term is more
often rather loosely applied to any point approximately on that bearing." The correct nautical
expression would have been "on the port or starboard bow," technically meaning, again in the
Companion's words, "within an arc of four points (45 degrees) extending either side of the bow
[i.e.,
the forward end of a ship, the opposite of stern.]"
Mumford's ship for his Part Three voyage was the Canadian-built "Empire Path", favourably
compared by a mate to the all-welded wartime Kaiser Liberty-ships that had developed a
reputation
for breaking apart in heavy seas. (As an engineering student in the early 1950s, I learned that the
problem, by then resolved, had been a lack of annealing to relieve the stresses induced by extreme
local heating during the welding process; whereas much of the "Empire Path"'s hull was
riveted.)
This "voyage" should have been a brief and simple North Sea crossing from the River Thames to
the
Rivier Scheldt, almost opposite, with Antwerp, Belgium, as the convoy's port of destination.
There
was however the dangerous complication that the Germans still held much of the Netherlands, just
to the north, where they had a base for E-boats (fast torpedo boats) and midget submarines.
During the crossing, Mumford is at it again, cursing himself for his ineptitude with women. At
least,
though, his social woes seems to take his mind off the dangers of war. Among other factors,
German
aircraft nightly lay mines in the shipping channel, following which Allied minesweepers try to clear
it. The catch is a new type of German mine which lies on the seabed and isn't picked up by
minesweepers' paravane gear.
They pass a recently destroyed ship, evidently a mining victim - one of the earlier vessels in their
own convoy, perhaps? They do however reach Antwerp safely, and discharge their cargo.
It is in beginning their return trip to England that one of the new mines gets them. Rescue is at
hand,
but among those killed in the initial heavy explosion is a close friend of Mumford's.
At the book's end, although he has renewed his acquaintance with a young woman he'd known
three
years earlier, the question remains open as to whether or not he has resolved, or will resolve
anytime
soon, his social troubles. Smarting (after so much real maltreatment by the world) under a
perceived
slight, he refuses a chance to go aboard a different ship with the same, previously congenial radio
colleagues as in the "Empire Path". Instead, he becomes chief radio officer in a small tanker
heading
for the Far East; he thus advances in rank, if perhaps not in social situation ...
All this time he has been the employee (and, to a large if not total extent, a responsibility) of a
private-sector company. That fact did little to limit the danger and drama, however, of his part in
the
war.
This book has broadened my perspective on World War II a great deal. Perhaps even more, it
makes
a good if somewhat accidental study of a seriously repressed and disturbed, even
personality-damaged young man, while raising some moral dilemmas for our consideration.
I've heard one can do oneself more harm than good by contravening a deeply held conviction. If
that's true, then however lovely, cultured, etc. a whore Mumford might potentially have had for a
one-night stand, he could well have ended by regretting it most bitterly, whether or not he'd
compromised his health in accordance with his mother's dire warnings.
If so, might he not have been better counselled - say, by an insightful psychiatrist - to see things
differently? Rather than following a common male trend of buying a loveless and commercial
"lay",
might he not have done better to make amends to the also attractive family friend he had so
admired,
but whom his mother had forced him to offend? I for one feel inclined to answer, "He very likely
would have done."
He was, after all, a precariously sensitized, even oversensitized young man. His best options were
not necessarily those that might perhaps satisfy us more common and - happily or hopefully -
more
resilient types.
It is at all events now "water under the bridge". In the book when we part company with
Mumford,
it is early 1945. As I write these lines, it's mid-2002, over 57 years later! We can at best wish that
Mumford may have experienced much joy, in the meantime.
The Translator
John Crowley
William Morrow
ISBN 0380978628; price USA $24.95, Can.$37.95; 295 pp.
Here's some brief lead-off advice. Don't hunt through this book's Part I for information on the
translating profession. It is a story of the personal development of a woman who will only begin
studying Russian in Part II, which starts almost exactly at this book's midpoint.
Even thereafter, resemblances to normal translating jobs are close to nil and Kit never becomes a
professional translator; she only helps her professor as further noted hereunder, doing so as a
part-time volunteer.
"Kit", or Christa Malone, the consistent protagonist (or central character) of this initially just
interesting, but increasingly gripping third-person story, is an American woman who has made, or
will make - for almost throughout Part I there's the complication of a timeframe which (usually)
fluctuates in 30-year leaps between the early 1960s and the early 1990s - stabs at university
studies,
writing poetry, and helping translate poems from Russian to English, the lastmentioned
overlapping
the territory of Part II. Sometimes we may aptly call her a young woman (aged 19 when we meet
her in the 1960s) but, whenever the action leaps 30 years ahead, she obviously becomes fiftyish -
middle-aged ... then back again!
Her more-or-less planned activities in what I might call her "Sixties phase" have first been
disturbed
by an unwelcome pregnancy, and at some other point by the disappearance and possible death of
the
Russian poet, Falin. He had been exiled in the early '60s from his homeland and, when Kit first
meets
him in her freshman year at a Western American university, it is because he is taking refuge by
teaching poetry there.
This novel's complex structure makes a compact analysis all but impossible. It often seems the
scenario may never settle down, but perhaps the "Nineties phase" only exists to reveal the Sixties
in
the perspective of a freedom of Russian enquiry that was unavailable during almost all the 70
years
of the USSR's tyrannical existence. Perhaps, in other words, the core of this story is actually the
events of the 1960s, and the 90s episodes merely concern the story's telling in retrospect.
Infrequent, shorter flashbacks into, I think, the 50s also occur involving Kit's perhaps too-dear
brother, Ben, before he had joined the U.S. army.
Never have I had such trouble in understanding a novel's genre. For instance, after having
tentatively
assigned other labels (the very first was "Literary"), I decided about 70 pages before the end that
this
was a slow-developing "spy thriller". After that, however, the spies all but vanished. Then, 45
pages
from the last page, and with the end of the world threatening, I decided to call it a "Cold War
drama" in hopes of covering all possible, further turns of the plot. Yet REALLY slowly
developing
"romance" may even be in the running, as the work's genre!
If the work's scenario is confusing when condensed, by a coup of masterly writing Crowley leads
us
through it quite effectively. For instance, the introductory sequence of perhaps five chapters flows
quite smoothly - but subject to certain then-unresolved mysteries, and despite leaps between the
American era of John F. Kennedy and the post-Communist era of Russia.
In the second paragraph of this review the words, "the consistent protagonist", refer to the way
this
story maintains Kit Malone's point of view (POV). In contrast, many another third-person tale's
POV jumps about from character to character like the proverbial flea on a hot griddle, until the
reader doesn't know who is who or with whom to identify. Crowley deserves credit for
maintaining
a perspective that's stable in that regard, despite his frequent temporal leaps which turn out to be
largely limited to Part I. Although it isn't Kit who narrates the story, in essence we are constantly
immersed in her thought patterns.
Crowley, or perhaps his editor, is less consistent in handling dialogue spoken by "Rossians" in an
English that's sometimes broken, sometimes perfectly mastered. To explain further to the
non-linguists among us, a wellknown imparity between the two languages is that the Russian
tongue
lacks grammatical articles equivalent to "the", "a", and "an"; its habitual speakers thus tend to
omit
such articles when essaying other languages. The same may or may not apply to the pronouns he,
she, it; for, at least in our cliche'd North American view, those too are dropped in Russian speech.
"Is Rossian tenk" might be our pseudo-Russian way to say, "It's a Russian tank." In a day when
word-processing programs are in common use, a computer could have scanned a digitized
"manuscript" and automatically picked out, even corrected such inconsistencies.
I also notice an absence of representations of mispronounced words, such as might have aided
Crowley's character-building efforts and lent his work more authenticity. In all this I intend no
slight,
however, upon Russians. Who does not mangle a foreign language while still in the process of
learning it?
On pages 50-51 in Chapter 6, Crowley has the Russian poet Falin teach his class (including Kit)
about English poet A. E. Housman's strikingly simple yet elegant and evocative verses by quoting
from, I think, the famed collection, "A Shropshire Lad". His sample poem is that lovely one about
cherry trees in blossom. I enjoy/admire the works of many poets, but I LOVE most of Housman's!
They are deeply affecting, but not affected.
In the bad old days of the Cold War, mysterious assassinations may have been regular fare on
both
sides of the Iron Curtain. When fugitive Russian poet Falin's car is pulled from an American river
in
flood, but no trace of a body is found, it seems to have been merely par for the course - just
another
atrocity that especially the presumably dead man's admirers in Russia must put up with, during the
Sixties. They will have questions to ask some better day, though, as emerges in the Nineties. This
we
know already in the book's first dozen pages, but no further light is shed on Falin's fate until nearly
the very end of Crowley's book.
Let's see whether I can make sense of the story's jumpy timeline, then, in this condensed
discussion
...
In one flash-forward to the 90s we learn that, back in time during the Cold War, Kit had included
within her own book her translations of several of the vanished Russian's works - full stop!
[Notice
the complications of writing about another writer's (Crowley's) writings about yet another writer
(Kit), who has appropriated the writings of still ANOTHER writer (Falin) - the one blessing being
that none of us writes about "writer's block" - a usual resort of authors writing about writers.
Anyway, reasonably short, manageable sentences are my only solution.]
Crowley says that much in Part I, even though Kit will become an assistant translator only in Part
II
- full stop! That is, this news seems to arrive before the fact which it describes has been
accomplished.
In fact, Kit's versions of Falin's works were the only forms to survive, for the USSR's Khruschev
regime had evidently obliterated his Russian-language originals.
Thus, in the much freer Nineties, Kit is invited to visit for a discussion on Falin to be held in
Russia.
She feels morally obliged to attend, almost as if summoned.
Author John Crowley is capable of a fine Literary style. At the beginning of Chapter 2 of this
work
he describes as follows Kit's airliner's arrival over St. Petersburg's (until recently Leningrad's)
airport, near the Baltic Sea's Gulf of Finland: "Christa Malone's plane descended out of the clear
desert air [above the clouds,] and was clothed again in clammy batting; came down through the
ceiling [as it were] into the house. There a light rain was falling; steely ocean, colorless heaped-up
city, air of tears ..." Perhaps the entire book really does merit being genre-tagged "Literary". At
what
point, though, is (say) an adventure not an adventure because it is capital-L "Literature"? That
distinction is too fine for me, as a non-expert, to call.
Still less certain is whether to call this novel "historical", a genre term I for a while tried on for
size.
In dealing with recent history, subjective feelings can be evoked. I for one face a question of
whether
I myself have become "historical", together with that era? Too, does history begin one second ago
-
in which case you, too, are merely "historical" ... or, if not, then just when in the never-ending
march
of time does the historicity transition occur?
I consider the era of the Cuban missile crisis and, say, the fall of Dien Bien Phu to be recent
history -
but yes, certainly historical; whereas - again, to me - the 1990s are still of the current era. The
result
is that Crowley's novel seems (to me) historical when it delves into the Sixties, but nearly
current-day when it leaps forward into the Nineties. To handle such issues, I now often wish I'd
studies Arts instead of Engineering!
At the outset, those leaps into and out of the historical period had me labelling Crowley's 2002
release "semi-historical", but I gave that idea up when Part II essentially settled down, as if to stay
in
the 1960s.
Kit "gets a crush on" her teacher Falin, and in her obsession takes to surreptitiously shadowing
him -
as shown in the dust-jacket photo - of which activity he is perfectly aware, having been shadowed
by
the best, in his time. He calls her bluff, and as their conversation verges upon personal as opposed
to
literary territory, Kit drops certain answers to us - not to Falin - concerning her onetime
pregnancy.
As usual, though, I mustn't spoil an author's mysteries by revealing their solutions.
For me, Kit's instructions at the beginning of Part I, Chapter 10 on how to kill oneself are too
horrifying to read. If you're similarly squeamish (and some are more so, e.g., not donating blood
despite good health), or if you're suicidal, just jump straight from page 97 to 100.
By page 110, and about 37% (or 3/8ths) of the way through the volume, I found myself
wondering
whether and when the novel's title translator will EVER materialize?
To do that kind of work you need both training in a second tongue, and education in its
accompanying culture - in this case evidently Russian. Before Part II, there is no sign of that's
actually happening except for the merely tangential circumstance that Kit studies English poetry
under a native Russian.
What happens instead, late in Part I, is that Kit's dear brother Ben, who at the end of his army gig
had re-enlisted in the supposedly peacekeeping Special Forces or Green Berets, is officially
reported
as accidentally killed during routine training in the Philippines - but rumour (which seems to stand
up) has it that Green Berets were in fact clandestinely fighting in Vietnam and, whenever they
were
killed and their bodies could be retrieved, they were shipped home via the Philippines with
"training
accidents" for cover stories.
To have been lied to, ontop of losing Ben, disturbs the family still more, although supposedly
those
lies soothed world as well as U.S. opinion.
We seem firmly moored in the 60s, then, when Kit, still grieving her dead brother, has another
encounter with Falin. He tells his own life story, a horrific tale of Russian children, like himself,
lost
by the million through the Great War (WW I), revolutionary upheaval, civil war, retribution,
pestilence, and other often unimaginable adversities; children unsheltered, comfortless, untutored
and unfed, either surviving by theft, or else dying in silence in the streets.
Then suddenly on page 124 there is a gap between paragraphs, and a different Russian man takes
up
much the same story, but now in the 1990s - yet mentioning happenings in the year 1927. Oh,
well -
hop, hop, hop!
Around this point in the book, we comprehend that Falin wrote some (or many?) of his poems
about
those lost Russian children, such as himself. I infer it may have been for this reason that he
became
persona non grata in his own land, and had his poems confiscated and destroyed, all as a matter of
an embarrassed and brutal state's policy. We may even speculate that Falin has been - or should
that
read "will be?", given the numerous leaps of the timeline? - killed by Russian agents to prevent his
recalling and rewriting those works whilst in exile ... or will the assassin (if assassinated Falin in
fact
is) prove to be American? Once the book seems unmasked as in some slight degree a spy thriller,
anything seems possible.
We're ahead of ourselves here, though. Until we catch up, I'll play this tale for the calm affair it
first
seems.
Part I ends on page 145. Early in Part II, which proves to be set nearly entirely in the Sixties, Kit
decides to study Russian by taking a summer course that seemingly is supported by the U.S. Dept.
of Defense, given at an institution located conveniently close to her university. At last, then, we
seem to have got onto track for her translator status.
Kit has deviously brought her bike from home to go calling on Falin, who has not yet disappeared
and is irresistible to her. He is not her Russian instructor, but she will learn much Russian from
him.
Don't expect a hormone-drenched tale of flaming romance and lust, however; even alone at his
place
(but for an almost immobilized landlady who stays in her own part of the house), their
conversation
chastely centres upon poetry, poets, and the Russian language and idiom.
Out driving in his car one day, they see a distant prospect of farm buildings; the word "silos"
arises,
and they both think of the Cold War missile silos buried underground not far to westward, and of
the
fact that Americans were the only ones - true even today - ever to have dropped The Bomb on
enemies.
In English, Falin shows Kit an example of the great problem of understanding the Russian idiom;
in
his poem "1937" he tells of a son who follows in his father's footsteps by being ever prepared for
his
potential midnight arrest. Within that poem is the line, "Some smoke of the northland, known to
him
and me;" that is, to both father and son. Falin points out undertones a non-Russian wouldn't catch,
but a Russian would: that Northland was a popular cigarette smoked by both men, while "smoke
of
the northland" can also refer to the chimney smoke of prison camps in the far north. How could
such
innocents as we ever guess such things? How could we find apt equivalents in English,
particularly if
we hadn't seen the hidden references to begin with?
Nonetheless, Falin goes on to ask Kit's help in translating his poems to English - not that she
knows
his language to any useful degree, but that she has written expressive poems of her own, in
English;
it is obvious that she can help greatly to form his poems' new versions.
What he proposes, then, is his close collaboration as a Russian specialist with her as an English
specialist, to create the same results as one able poet might who had a sure mastery of both
tongues.
That means closeness, but Kit's sexual fascination seems to have waned, while he has never really
shown any (keeping it in mind also that, the book being written from her POV, we don't know
what
secret thoughts occur to him.)
For instance, the common Russian term for a black police car, "raven" in translation, might equate
to
"paddy wagon" in English - but that is unsuitable to the poet because of its ridiculous Keystone
Cops overtones; the team therefore agrees on "black maria". (Incidentally, the same French term
is
literally translated into English as "salad basket"!)
Such negotiations and joint decisions continue evening after evening, page after page, in a
dispassionate fashion, relaxed but with neither poet pursuing the other except to find just the right
words.
At last Kit offers herself to Falin, but is rejected. Ouch! Then he leaves on some sort of trip,
asking
Kit to feed the cats, etc., in his absence.
On page 175 a common Americanism occurs that always jars me, particularly in a generally
Literary
novel and when placed in the supposedly expert mouth of a poet and linguist. It is an error in
English
if not American syntax, so blatant and basic that even Kit's Russian interlocutor must have
winced.
She tells him, "Well I bet I actually can fail pretty good." That whole miserable sentence is of
course
colloquial, but mere colloquialisms are accepted in quoted speech. The problem is that, outside
the
U.S., the use of the adjective "good" to replace the adverb "well" is practically never seen except
in
only semi-literate sports and crime reports. (An American dictionary indicates that the adverbial
"well" does in fact exist in the United States.)
Far more importantly, with Falin away, when Kit drops in to feed the cats a U.S. government
agent
enters Falin's premises to snoop. The agent is, moreover, in league with Kit's university dean. By
page 225 Kit is horrified to find herself plunged into a dangerous world she'd scarcely dreamed of;
a
broth of duplicity, covert surveillance, veiled threats, and assorted secret agents. Even one of Kit's
close friends seems to be such.
Falin returns, but by now doubts have been cast on him and so he decides that in the new
circumstances they must part. There now seems scarcely anyone short of Kit's distant parents
whom
she can trust ... but this dramatic climax seems to fade away and be replaced by the universally felt
(for the real likelihood of the mass extinction of life on Earth now looms) tension of the Cuban
missile crisis. In this exigency - the Cold War is threatening to become very hot indeed - Kit and
Falin reunite.
It was in part a time for gallows humour. A girlfriend tells Kit about the Russian medium-range
ballistic missiles, MRBMs, going into Cuba. "... And they could reach as far as Washington and
Indianapolis ... We'd lose Indianapolis[!]"
More to the point, with the world's end in view Kit at last gets the love affair she's wanted with
Falin. In the morning, though, she awakens to hear him ending a telephone conversation in
Russian.
While reassuring her that this is not the end, he tells her he must go, but that whatever people
expect, he will return to her - and then, taking the Russian versions of his poems with him, he
drives
away.
In the meantime, the danger of all-out war escalates farther over two widely separated U-2
spyplane
incidents, one grave because the US aircraft was shot down over Cuba and its pilot killed, the
other
perhaps even graver because it has occurred in Soviet airspace with US nuclear air-to-air missiles
being deployed, although their firing is just averted.
A student march to support Cuba places Kit before a TV on which Falin's car is seen being
winched
out of the water. Thus after 255 pages, the action first mentioned on page 11 is completed. In the
remaining 29 pages, we can hope at last to learn Falin's fate.
In fact we don't learn it except abstractly, even metaphysically, during a last 30-year
flash-forward.
Back on her Russian visit in the Nineties, Kit sees a street urchin who bears Falin's first name, and
finds an acceptance concerning Falin's end that's too complex to explain here.
The murder of Kennedy about a year after the Cuban crisis is seen in this book as an
atonement.
Kit makes one try (I don't know in what year) at telephoning the onetime lad who'd deflowered
and
impregnated her, years earlier - he has been of no other account to speak of, in the book - but she
gives it up at the mention of his new house, his wife, and his baby.
A memorial to those lost in Vietnam is raised in Washington, but without honouring Kit's brother
Ben, who "wasn't really of the Vietnam era"; in other words, Ben's supreme sacrifice hasn't quite
counted because it had occurred while his country was in denial.
Kit herself has married and given birth to a family, so garnering perhaps as much happiness as
anyone has much right to expect.
The end.
Pete Hodgins Sr.
Reviewer
Peter's Bookshelf
Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed In A Noisy World
Shel Horowitz
Chelsea Green Publishing
Post Office Box 428, White River Junction, VT 05001
ISBN 1890132683, $22.95, (800) 639-4099, http://www.chelseagreen.com
Grassroots Marketing is a great book for small business owners who want to improve their
company's marketing and do so inexpensively. The book surveys nearly every marketing method
known to man.
Horowitz says that the average U.S. adult is exposed to about 2,000 marketing messages each
day.
So, entrepreneurs really need to make their message stand out from the crowd. Further, Horowitz
argues that the average small business, individual, or organization needs to market very
inexpensively.
Horowitz summarizes marketing as: 1) Identifying your target market; 2) Getting the right
information and message to your market; and 3) Convincing the target customer to do business
with
your company.
Horowitz discusses:
- Choosing a company name and how the name impacts marketing
- Designing logos
- Writing press releases
- Writing professional articles to market your business
- Using Yellow Page ads effectively
- Direct mail: when it's effective and when it's not
- Bumper stickers and billboards
- Radio and TV advertising via free publicity
- Internet marketing and getting listed on search engines
- Affiliate marketing
- Telemarketing
- Personal sales and mulitlevel marketing
- Word-of-mouth referrals and networking to get them
- Branding and creating 'buzz'
The chapter about effective copyrighting is especially strong. Horowitz expands the basic AIDA
formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) into ten points of effective copywriting.
Horowitz writes: "Great Copywriting:
1. Catches the reader's attention with something relevant;
2. Addresses the reader's fears, anxieties, and/or aspirations;
3. Stresses specific benefits to the user, not the features that leads to those benefits;
4. Offers to solve the reader's problem, in the most specific terms possible;
5. Provides the reader with a chance to acquire something of clear value-but only for a limited
time;
6. Pulls the reader toward immediate action;
7. Shows the consequences of failure to act;
8. Includes solid, substantial validation of your claim by someone else ( a customer, an
expert);
9. Backs up claims with comparisons to competitors; and
10. This should be obvious-provides the necessary order form, address, and/or telephone number
to
allow the reader to move forward."
The strength of the chapter about writing effective copy isn't surprising, given that Horowitz is a
professional copywriter who helps companies develop advertising
(http://www.frugalmarketing.com). Horowitz also helps entrepreneurs plan marketing and
publicity campaigns.
Grassroots Marketing gives many resources throughout. Not every marketing method discussed
in
Grassroots Marketing will be appropriate for your company. For example, while a plumber will
benefit greatly from a Yellow Page Ad (Horowitz says that people tend to consult the Yellow
Pages
during emergencies among other occasions), other entrepreneurs will benefit more from direct
mail.
And, while Horowitz says that balloons with logos are best used to draw people to events,
financial
advisors will probably not want to place their business logo on balloons.
Tapping Into Wireless: The Savvy Investor's Guide To Profiting From The Wireless Wave
Tom Taulli and Dave Mock
McGraw-Hill
P.O. Box 182604, Columbus, OH 43272
ISBN 0071384197, $27.95, Hardcover., http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/, 1-877-833-5524
Tapping Into Wireless is written for those who want to invest in the high-growth area of wireless
telecommunications. Entrepreneurs entering the wireless industry and people interested in learning
more about the world of wireless will also benefit by reading this book.
Tapping Into Wireless begins with a chapter about the history of wireless technology. Taulli and
Mock say we can understand the how's and why's of the industry by learning a bit about the
history
of wireless. This will help us make better investment decisions today.
After telling us about the advent of the telegraph and the early adventures to lay transatlantic
cable
to allow continent-to-continent communication, Taulli and Mock discuss Gugielmo Marconi's
development of the radio and the growth of amateur radio.
Surprisingly, nearly 100 years ago, many people imagined that wireless would become the
dominant
personal communication device. Because of the ability of waves travelling through air to reach
any
location and the expense of laying cable from every point to every point, it seemed logical that
person-to-person communication would be radio-based, not cable-based.
Yet, only recently have wireless personal communications become a consumer reality. Taulli and
Mock explain that the wireless future had to wait until electronic advances allowed compact and
reliable wireless devices.
That didn't stop early promoters of wireless from starting companies promising a bright future and
guaranteeing huge investment returns. Taulli and Mock discuss the wireless telegraph investment
bubble of the early 1900's.
Taulli and Mock write: "Unscrupulous stock promoters exaggerated this theoretical advantage of
radio way beyond reason at the time....it demonstrates what can happen when a revolutionary
technology emerges in a capitalist society. Truly, there was a very real and promising industry in
wireless telegraphy and telephony; it only needed more time to develop. The problems with stock
scams at this time actually had more to do with corrupt financiers than with the radio industry...."
Eventually, government regulators shut down the fraudulent companies.
Taulli and Mock explain a successful investor in technology must distinguish hype from reality.
This
doesn't imply the need to have an engineer's level of understanding of wireless technology.
Taulli and Mock write: "...knowledge of wireless technology may not be a significant advantage
for
the investor. The technology buffs who have the inside scoop on how all this stuff works often
make
no better investment choices than those who are clueless in this area."
The authors explain that too many other factors affect wireless investments, including government
regulation, politics, communication standards adoptions, buy-in from industry leaders, intellectual
property management, and consumer taste.
For example, Taulli and Mock tell us that, as radio grew in America, the U.S. government felt a
foreign corporation shouldn't control the airwaves, so the U.S. government put pressure on
Marconi
to sell its U.S. radio interests to an American-based company. Overnight, G.E. and RCA became
the
dominant radio companies in America. By this example, the authors alert wireless investors to the
politics and regulations affecting their investments.
We also learn about the formation of the Federal Communications Commission to manage the
frequencies available to radio. Because unregulated use of the airwaves led to overlapping signals
as
multiple users tried to communicate on the same frequency, the government decided it should
regulate the spectrum of available frequencies. The FCC decided it would own the air frequencies
and auction off the rights to broadcast on various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in various
geographical regions.
Taulli and Mock tell us that, in 2001, the FCC earned nearly $17 billion from spectrum auctions.
Further, the authors say the U.S. government will earn even more through such auctions in the
future. (I've heard of entrepreneurs and investors buying auctioned airwave rights and reselling
them
for a profit. In one case, I believe a $100,000 investment earned a few tens of millions of dollars.
So,
some people have literally become rich by legally buying and reselling thin air!)
In a chapter about investing in wireless network operators (i.e., the companies that provide access
to
wireless communication), Taulli and Mock tell us that spectrum licenses are an important
investment
metric (POPs).
Taulli and Mock write: "Licensed POP's include the population covered by spectrum licenses. If a
service provider has a license to 10 MHz of spectrum in Atlanta, Georgia, then the population of
this
area is included in its figure for licensed POPs... . The owning of rights to spectrum is basically
wireless real estate... ."
Taulli and Mock cover many other important investment measurements when evaluating wireless
network providers, such as revenue per user, customer turnover, and the average cost to add a
new
customer.
Wireless network providers aren't the only way to profit by investing in wireless. Other chapters
of
Tapping Into Wireless discuss wireless IPO's, investing in wireless equipment and component
manufacturers, mutual funds that invest in telecommunications, ways to invest in foreign wireless
companies, and knowing when to sell a telecommunications stock. Angel investors will find the
chapter about investing in smaller, private, wireless companies valuable.
Entrepreneurs will especially enjoy the chapter about wireless enterprise solutions. Basically,
"enterprise solutions" involve helping companies use technology to become more efficient or to
do
things in new ways. Such enterprise-solution companies usually don't provide wireless network
access nor manufacture components. Rather, they usually develop database systems and computer
code allowing a company to use wireless devices in a productive way.
Taulli and Mock point out that wireless access to the Internet will create huge opportunities for
entrepreneurs and those who provide wireless enterprise solutions.
Taulli and Mock write: "The combination of wireless capabilities with the resources available on
the
Internet has every entrepreneur chomping at the bit to develop something hundreds of millions of
cellular phone owners would pay to have....The merging of the Internet and wireless
communications has tremendous potential to change the lives and cultures of people around the
globe... Not only do we have a global network that stores vast amounts of information at various
nodes, we also have the capability to access one of those nodes from virtually anywhere on the
planet."
Peter Hupalo
Reviewer
David's Bookshelf
Reclaim Your Life
Jim Donovan
Lahaska Publishing
ISBN: 0-96505348-2, $9.95, www.lahaskapublishing.com.
Simple wisdom in a pocket-sized package -- that's Reclaim Your Life by Jim Donovan. There are
no
surprises and no gimmicks, just plain honest wisdom. If you seek something new that you have
never heard of, this is not the book for you. If you seek a handy little reminder of the timeless
truths
that somehow get lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday stress and panic to get out the door and
try to catch the bus so you won't be late for work where that pile of paper is threatening to fall off
your desk and cause a workplace injury Well, let's just say that if real life sometimes gets in your
way, this book is an excellent reminder of where that way is.
In a slim 84 pages, Donovan offers us the opportunity to "claim our divine birth rite to have a life
of
peace, joy, happiness, excitement, health, love, prosperity, fun, passion and abundance." As I read
Reclaim Your Life, I revisited most of the themes of my own book (a much larger volume
focusing
just on the "happiness" part).
I found myself nodding my head to the beat. No, I haven't switched to a music review -- books
have
beats, too. The good ones, the ones that help reveal the truths we hold inside, often cause our
heads
to nod to their beats.
Let me leave you with one "beat" that caused my head to nod: "Whatever the passion within you,
let
it out. Life is too fragile and uncertain to postpone your dreams, hoping that 'someday, I'll really
begin to live my life.'"
If you are serious about your life, I recommend this book for light, but serious, reading.
Harkening: A Collection Of Stories Remembered
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
PublishAmerica/AmErica House Publishing
PO Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705-0151
ISBN: 1-59129-550-5, $19.95, www.publishamerica.com
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's latest wonder arrived in my mailbox just when I was already trying to
squeeze 30-hour days into my paltry 24. But how could I let something from such a gifted writer
just sit there? Carolyn Howard-Johnson writes like an onion with each layer she peels craftily
coaxing tears from her readers' eyes.
Harkening is one such tear-jerker -- a collection of Depression era tales from her mother's
childhood
and memories of her own. Some sad, some happy, all heartwarming.
There is something eerie about this book, something that keeps the reader off balance. It is clearly
an
autobiography, both of Howard-Johnson and of her mother. It says as much up front: "Stories can
easily lose themselves without a teller-of-stories to keep them alive. A family needs a bard."
But sometimes I get the feeling that this book may be as much fiction as reality -- like the feeling
some people get that they are outside themselves watching their comings and goings from afar.
Two
quotations she places up front lend credence to my theory.
And some of her tales are clearly not autobiographical or are they? Well, the names seem to
change and she writes some in the third person, but maybe they are autobiographical just the
same. I
so dearly wanted to ask the author. But I held back so as to take the stories at face value, just as
you, dear reader, will when you get the chance.
Harkening -- or at least some of the tales in Harkening -- picks up where This Is The Place left
off.
(If you have not yet read This Is The Place, I highly recommend it.) There are moments of
triumph.
There are scenes of tension. Many of the stories are seen through the eyes of a child, through the
innocence of youth, and through superb, descriptive writing that makes the reader feel like he is
there in the story.
Howard-Johnson finally reveals the source of her magical writing skills when she calls her mother
"The most avid of these story-tellers."
If I could describe Harkening in one word, it would be "captivating!" Enjoy every story.
David Leonhardt, Reviewer
http://www.TheHappyGuy.com
Ninave's Bookshelf
A Shadow On The Glass: Book One, The View From The Mirror
Ian Irvine
Aspect Fantasy/Warner Books
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
0446609846, $6.99 US, 654 pages including glossary
A Shadow On The Glass is the first installment of The View From The Mirror, a four volume
series.
In this part, we discover the world of Santhenar, a place where, long ago, four races converged to
fight over a magical flute that opened the doorways between their worlds. At the apex of the final
battle, the flute is lost, and the doorway between the worlds is closed forever. It is a world where
these races live in uneasy peace, the wounds still not scabbed over, where Mancers fight each
other
for the one relic that might allow the way between the worlds to open again, where the ultimate
evil
lurks in his prison cell, waiting patiently to be free once more.
Llian of Zain is a student Chronicler who, at his graduation, tells a new version of The Histories,
or
the tales of the people on Santhenar. He has discovered papers that changes some of the key
aspects
of the final battle, and is bold enough to tell it. Any change in The Histories is bound to cause
controversy, and Llian gets it in handfuls. One day he is a Master Chronicler, ready to take on the
world with his great tale, the next he is stripped of his stipend and forced to fend for himself. His
hunger to find out the truth of his tale, to forge a new masterwork, causes him even more trouble.
His is expelled, but given one last chance to redeem himself. He is sent to find Karan of Bannador,
to lead her and what she carried to Mendark the magister.
Karan is a sensitive - a blending of the races trapped on Santhenar. Her talent is that she can link
with people's minds, feel the presence of people from a distance. Years ago she was captured and
put into slavery, only to be freed by the enigmatic Maigraith. The price will come later, Maigraith
assures her, and it does. Maigraith knows the secret of Karan's gift, and needs her to help her
break
into a unbreachable citadel, to gain a relic for her mistress. Karan is reluctant to leave her home,
but
her vow to repay Maigraith's past kindness binds her to the task.
The relic - a mirror that may be the only way to re-make the paths between the worlds, will
become
Karan and Llian's greatest burden. Drawn together, they run from their enemies - Karan trying to
decide who is worthy enough, who is wise enough, to be the final possessors of the mirror, Llian
trying to find the materials to write the greatest tale ever spoken.
I found the story fascinating . Irvine's strength is in his characters. Llian is sweet, intelligent, a
little
full of himself, but entirely wonderful to hang around with, even if he does make some grave, and
sometimes somewhat frustrating, mistakes. Karan is practical, a good, resourceful heroine that
manages to see them both through some truly terrifying situations. There's many interesting
relationships. For example, Maigraith is torn between the duty to the cold Mancer who raised her
and the strange affections she feels for the man who imprisoned her. Things like this should be
interesting to watch as the series progresses. I also loved the settings - so different from our
world,
yet every once in awhile Irvine places a material or an item in - like rubber, or a house that sounds
like nothing less than a dilapidated Victorian that, rather than stopping you, makes you feel even
closer to the world and its inhabitants.
The next two books in the series, The Tower on the Rift and Dark is the Moon are already out. I
would compare this series quite favorably with the works of George R.R. Martin and Terry
Goodkind. I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next.
Black River
G.M. Ford
William Morrow
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
ISBN 0380978741, $23.95, 308 pages, http://www.harpercollins.com
Frank Corso is a former reporter and crime book writer who has long desired to see Nicholas
Balagula behind bars. He has seen the best efforts of some of the brightest stars of the Attorney
Generals Office try and fail to convict him twice. Now he is the only outsider allowed to sit in on
the
trail that has sparked so much public anger, on the third and last try. Balagula is said the be behind
the collapse of a hospital which killed 63 people, most of them children. He allegedly made
substantial cutbacks in the materials that went into the building which, when the San Andreas fault
made a tiny shift that hardly anyone noticed, caused the building to topple like a house of cards.
Balagula has long maintained his innocence, and anyone saying otherwise is effectively dealt
with.
The book begins with an innovative twist. A pair of hit men are scouting out their mark, who,
according to his schedule, is sitting inside his truck, about to go to work. They soon discover the
man they're supposed to kill has already been shot. Instead of being happy, they decide that they
have to earn their money by hiding the body and the truck according to plan. The truck is
discovered
months later, which happens to bring Meg Dougherty into the scene. She's Frank's ex-love, and a
friend. When she is discovered in her own wrecked car, he suspects that someone may be after
her.
She's suffered terrible injuries, and he has to wait until she recovers before he can find out what
she
knows.
These interwoven plots make for a really exciting story. The trial, the hit men, and Meg are
tangled
together, and Frank's determination to figure out why makes for incredible reading. He admits to
having a high morality, and so it makes sense that his love for her and his desire to see justice
weigh
equally in his motivations. He's a good character. A little quick tempered, but in a way that's a
reliving factor, for the reader, rather than a detrimental flaw in the character. He's chivalrous and
driven, and these attributes mixed in with the sort of wistfulness he feels for Meg make him
immensely likable. Meg is another interesting character, despite her limited role. She has a very
sad
and unusual past...one of her ex-lovers, when she dumped him, drugged her and tattooed every
inch
of her body in an obscene act of revenge. This odd fact drew me to her more surely than her
already
sad fate, because one can not help but wonder how it would feel to live with a body permanently
marked like that. This, along with her other character points, makes her an equally powerful
character despite the fact she only has enough "on page" time to seem like a minor one, and
infuses
the actions of Frank, where they have to do with her, an air of credibility and chivalry.
I spent the whole day reading this book. It really drew me in, and kept me going. This is the
second
book Ford has written with Frank Corso as a character, the first is called Fury.
Ninave Lake
Reviewer
Lowe's Bookshelf
Gun Shy, 2nd Edition
Lori L. Lake
Renaissance Alliance Publishing, Inc.
PMB 289, 8691 9th Ave., Port Arthur, Tx 77642
ISBN: 1930928432, $18.95, 396 pages; www.rapbooks.biz
Lake's Gun Shy is the story of two somewhat reluctant women who finally learn to believe in
themselves and each other enough to commit to love. Covering just over a year in the lives of
these
women, the novel reads like a season's worth of episodes from a television show that lesbians
might
wish was on TV. The story opens with Desiree Reilly, a formidable cop over six feet tall with
dark
hair and startling blue eyes, capturing a pair of serial rapists and in the process saving two young
women, Sara and JayLynn. It is a meeting that electrifies both JayLynn and Desiree. JayLynn
Savage, a lesbian in her mid-20s, decides to become a police officer in order to get to know
Desiree,
the hero of her dreams, literally. Lake follows Savage through the academy and most of her
rookie
year on the St. Paul Police Department.
Gun Shy is also the story of Desiree who is struggling with the loss of her partner and good
friend,
Ryan. Early in her career Dez was a conquest for a rather superficial older female cop who
apparently made a hobby of bedding young dyke officers. Hurt and embarrassed, Dez has made a
rule not to date cops. Presumed by many of the other cops to be lesbian, Dez has rarely dated at
all,
let alone been seriously involved with a woman for almost eight years. Already known as the "Ice
Queen" the tall and intimidating Dez has withdrawn even more since Ryan's death.
Reilly becomes Field Training Officer for Savage and the two women begin a long complicated
dance toward friendship and love. Along the way, the bright and innovative, if diminutive Jay
becomes a good police officer. She learns to develop her own attributes in her work, deals with
the
trauma her first shooting and the pries the elusive Dez out of her shell. Meanwhile Dez comes to
grips with Ryan's death. Over the course of the year the partners learn a great deal about each
other
and themselves. And the reader learns about life as a patrol officer in St. Paul as well as being
treated to an inside view of the world of amateur bodybuilding.
Gun Shy is an engaging, readable book. This second edition includes some editorial clean up that
improves the flow of the novel and features new cover art. The characters are interesting and the
action drew this reader into the story. Amusingly, Lake seems to have created two lesbians that
are
the antithesis of the standard u-haul joke. This reviewer was relieved when Jay and Dez finally got
together! Overcoming the barriers to expressing their love is the theme of Gun Shy. The sequel,
"Under the Gun" is due out this fall. It will be interesting to see how she depicts Jay and Dez as a
couple. In the meantime, treat yourself to a copy of Gun Shy.
Coming Home
Lois Cloarec Hart
Renaissance Alliance Publishing, 2001
PMB 238, 8691 9th Ave, Port Arthur, Tx 77642
ISBN: 1930928505, $ 20.99, 380 pages, www.rapbooks.biz
Almost 25 years old and just finished with her Masters in English, Terry has taken a job with
Canada
Post delivering the mail. A job that she hopes will give her the time to think about and write her
first
novel. One day on her route, Terry is asked to help a woman lift her quadriplegic husband who
has
fallen. Terry is quite taken by Rob and Jan, and their respective attitudes toward dealing with
Rob's
advanced MS.
When Terry sees Jan at a local park a few days later, she strikes up a conversation with her. This
is
the beginning of a special friendship between Terry and Jan as well as Rob. For some 15 years,
Terry
learns, Jan has been taking care of Rob as his health increasingly declines. Jan's escape and
comfort,
during these years as a caregiver, are her books. She has a voracious appetite for reading a range
of
fiction genres. A mutual love of books becomes an important common ground for the two
women.
Once an athletic hotshot pilot for the Canadian Air Force, Rob continues to maintain a deceptively
lively attitude. A charming extrovert he enjoys the opportunities to socialize with Terry and her
family. Rob's point of view is rarely known, although his personal history and tales of his exploits
are
often provided. This creates an interesting impression of Rob that reflects some of his distancing
with life.
Intelligent, kind and generous, Terry can also have a quick temper that sometimes prompts her to
speak without thinking. She is perhaps the most rounded character in a well depicted cast. Her
point
of view is prominent and her interactions with her two roommates and extensive family are
followed
over the course of almost a year. During that time, Terry comes to realize that her feelings for Jan
are not entirely platonic. Meanwhile, Jan begins to acknowledge feelings that she's long ignored
regarding her own orientation. Honorable, neither woman will betray their obligations or Rob's
trust.
There's a popular saying that experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.
Suffice
it to say that Terry gets a great deal of experience over the course of Coming Home. Ordinarily,
titles that deal with such a "lovers' triangle" do not appeal to this reviewer because of the amount
of
angst involved. Unsurprisingly, Coming Home has a great deal of that angst. However, it is also a
very touching and well-told story. Hart has populated Coming Home with realistic, interesting
characters and she provides a loving tribute to persons like Rob who struggle against diseases like
MS and the caregivers that give them love, care and a dignified life. Furthermore there are some
charming insights to living in Calgary, particularly its lesbian community. If you're in the mood for
a
good tear jerker, Coming Home is worth your while.
Slay Me Tender
Jenny Scholten
New Victoria Publishers
P. O. Box 27 Norwich, VT 05055
ISBN: 1892281155, $ 11.95, 2001, 216 pp.
Twenty five years old, Aubrey is worried about how much longer she can work as an exotic
dancer.
Her knees are aching and her breasts are sagging. Actually, Aubrey claims they've always sagged.
Nevertheless, this awareness of the vulnerability of her likelihood to her physique and the extreme
measures other dancers go to, particularly in regard to breast enhancements, are central themes to
Slay Me Tender. The novel opens with Naughtylands weekly feature dancer (usually porn stars
from
out of town), Plushious Velvett, complaining to Aubrey about the hardening the stars very large
breast implants. When Plushious disappears, leaving part of her wardrobe and fails to appear at
her
next scheduled club, Aubrey's natural curiosity gets peaked. Then she finds a gun, dark poems
written by Plushious and what appears to be a bloody breast implant in the building where
Plushious
was staying, Aubrey can't help but start looking into the disappearance.
Scholten portrays the colorful and seamy aspects of the housing shortage in San Francisco and the
gentrification of the infamous Tenderloin district with amusing detail. Her strengths are her
characters and sense of humor, particularly irony. Aubrey shares a flat with four other people. Its
a
wonderful, motley group. There's Vivian who is working on her thesis and exploring
non-monogamy
much to the strain of her relationship with the quiet Zan. There's the beautiful and vibrant artist,
Geoffrey who is "tri-sexual" (as in he'll try anything sexual) as well as his current, and frequently
present, boyfriend, Gregor-with-the-red-Renault-convertible. And finally, there is shy, neurotic
and
modest Hugh. With his photographic memory Hugh provides most of the roommates with some
fashion accessories from thrift store where he works and looks after everyone including Aubrey's
cat, Hodge. Added to Aubrey's regular roommates are the feature dancers who are temporarily
staying at Aubrey's place (along with their manager or body guard or girlfriend, etc.). These are
just
a few of the amusing, yet realistic and compassionately drawn characters in Slay Me Tender.
A fiercely independent young woman of Southern white trash ancestry, Aubrey continues to be
ambivalent about her job. She defends the choice of employment. "With what other job could a
history major without computer skills make three hundred dollars a day? (page 26) When a
roommate makes disparaging comments about "those women," she points out that she is a worker
in
the sex industry. Yet Aubrey is realistic about the potential problems of the job. She worries about
how long much longer her body will be "profitable" as a dancer, and the possible dangers of
overly
friendly customers. She carefully avoids being in debt to the older police officer who is a regular
at
Naughtyland. Yet she is a constant witness to the victims of the industrys "victimless crimes."
At one point, Aubrey is surprised at her own stereotyping of customers' wives. She realizes that
her
assumptions are a "buying into the systems" view of these women. Aubreys willingness to self
examine, makes her character more attractive. Scholten's sardonic humor takes the bitter edge off
the futility of the situation for the residents and workers of the Tenderloin. Despite a range of
offers,
Aubrey, ironically continues her life of celibacy, futher disrupting those annoying stereotypes of
exotic dancers.
This second Aubrey Lyle mystery is better than the first. The plot flows more smoothly. Scholten
creates an interesting hybrid mystery. Her characters and plots have a very traditional amateur
sleuth
mystery quality. However, her focus on the sex industry and related organized crime are subject
matter that is far more typical of "hard boiled" noir detective mysteries. She even manages to
incorporate an almost slapstick car chase scene. This combination works for Scholten and makes
for
often amusing and occasionally provocative reading. I will be looking forward to further
developments in Aubrey's world.
MJ Lowe
Reviewer
Paul's Bookshelf
Al-Jazeera
Mohammed El-Nawawy and Adel Iskandar,
Westview Press
5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301), 2002,
ISBN 0813340179, $24.00, 228 pages, http://www.westviewpress.com
Al-Jazeera is the all-Arabic TV news channel which burst on to the international scene in the
wake
of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan. Its unfettered access to that country during the war
and
its showing of the bin Laden tapes made it an automatic force on the world stage.
Based in the Gulf state of Qatar, it came from the remnants of the BBC Arabic TV service. With
the
help of startup money from the Emir of Qatar, Al-Jazeera was to have complete editorial
independence.
In a part of the world where the press is usually government controlled, Al-Jazeera is not afraid to
get specific and name names. At one time or another, it has been criticized or condemned by
seemingly every government in the Arab world, for broadcasting things that the local government
would prefer not be broadcast. Every local editorial of condemnation and every denial of press
credentials to Al-Jazeera reporters just increases its audience all over the world by satellite.
One of the things that Al-Jazeera is most known for is its talk shows, especially a nightly,
two-hour
show called The Opposite Direction. Two guests appear on the show, with totally opposite
opinions
on a certain issue, and with help from live phone calls, the sparks fly. Even by American TV
standards, things get pretty loud and lively. Arab governments have noticed, and have begun
imitating the format on their tame and boring government TV channels.
Even though Al-Jazeera is an Arab TV channel, it has tried very hard to be impartial, hosting
members of the Bush Administration, after September 11, and government officials from
Israel.
For those who want to decide for themselves if Al-Jazeera is a legitimate news broadcaster or a
terrorist mouthpiece, this book is highly recommended. It's comprehensive, clearly written and is
quite enlightening.
Stardoc
S.L. Viehl
Roc Books
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
ISBN 0451457730, 394 pages, $6.99, http://www.penguinputnam.com
Cherijo Grey Veil is a brilliant Earth doctor who, to escape a domineering father, accepts a
position
at the FreeClinic on the planet Kevarzangia Two, about as far away as one can get. It's inhabited
by
over 200 species who live in separate colonies, and only a tiny fraction of them are
humanoid.
From the moment she arrives, she has to prove herself with each and every patient. She
experiences
the egos and varying levels of competence among the staff inherent in any hospital. The
equipment is
in desperate need of replacement because the home worlds of the planet's inhabitants are not very
sympathetic.
Cherijo meets, and falls for, a Jorenian, a tall blue humanoid, named Kao Jorin. They bond (get
married) and she becomes an official part of the Clan.
One day, a person comes to the Clinic with symptoms resembling tuberculosis. According to their
medical tests, there's no germ involved, no virus, nothing. Cherijo wants to declare a quarantine,
but
Dr. Mayer, the Chief of Staff, says no without something more specific to go on. A quarantine is
declared after it becomes a full-scale epidemic, with hundreds dying of this disease that isn't really
a
disease, and Cherijo is the only one on staff not affected. Kao Jorin, Cherijo's mate, is among the
dead.
Her father, who hasn't stopped trying to bring her back to Earth, puts enough pressure on the
League of Worlds to have Cherijo relieved of her position at the FreeClinic and returned to Earth,
sedated and restrained if necessary. Just before that is to happen, she is rescued by other members
of
Kao's Clan and taken aboard their ship. The League wants her back real bad, and the Jorenians are
just as determined to not give her back.
This one is really good. The best part of this novel is that the aliens are really alien, and not just
humanoids with strange skin coloring. It certainly feels like a worthy successor to James White's
Sector General series. There's a good story here, too. It's worth reading.
The Perseids And Other Stories
Robert Charles Wilson
Tor Books
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
ISBN 0312873743, 2000, $12.95, 224 pages, http://www.tor.com
This group of speculative fiction stories take place in, and around, the city of Toronto,
Canada.
An amateur astronomer buys a telescope at a local shop, and starts dating the female sales clerk.
With a little hallucinogenic help, what starts as a relationship story turns into a tale of the next
stage
of human evolution. In 1950s California, young girl who claims to have been visited by aliens and
is
spending the summer with an uncle has a strange encounter with astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Another story is about an ever-changing group of friends who get together for some intellectual
conversation. One person says, "Invent a religion."
A writer of New Age books has a genuine encounter with the extraordinary, courtesy of a mirror
that shows very interesting things to those who stand in front of it. In another story, a man
speculates a being as far above humans as we are above a house cat among us right now, but we
wouldn't know it. At a local used bookstore called Finders (locale for several of these stories) the
man bought a rock as a paperweight. It's actually a scrying rock, which lets the holder of the rock
see into their future.
I loved these stories. They could be set in any large city, they're sort of like Twilight Zone stories
(a
mixture of fantasy, science fiction and horror), and they are very thought-provoking. Wilson is
one
of my favorite science fiction writers, so I don't claim to be totally unbiased, but this is highly
recommended.
Paul Lappen
Reviewer
Shelley's Bookshelf
Trace Their Shadows
Ann Turner Cook
iUniverse.com, Inc.
5220 S. 16th St., Suite 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595204104, $16.95 US/$27.95 CAN, GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ www.iuniverse.com
Ann Turner Cook was one of the celebrated Gerber babies at the beginning of her life. She is
presently a retired English teacher, living in Central Florida, where she researches for her mystery
writing with her husband. She acted as an emissary for the Gerber Company and has made several
guest appearances on national talk and news shows, including The Today Show; Good Morning,
America; Entertainment Tonight; Sally Jesse Raphael; and the Rosie O'Donnell Show. She is just
as
cute now as she was as a Gerber baby.
Brandy O'Bannon is trying to save her job with the Tavares Beacon by writing an interesting
feature
article for her editor, Mr. Tyler. It concerns an old mansion that is decaying and about to be sold
to
a developer. Brookfield Able bequeathed the old mansion to his sister Sylvania, with the
understanding that she could sell it if she so desired. There are rumors that the mansion is
haunted,
and the tale of a bizarre drowning forty-five years ago adds to the mystery. Brandy enlists the aid
of
Sylvania's grand-nephew, architect John Able, to gain access to Sylvania and the mansion's sad
and
eerie history. John and Brandy connect after sharing life-threatening experiences as they "look
around" the mansion for artifacts and find human remains:
"At the same instant, the moccasin's fangs sank into John's hand. She gave a sob, sprang out of
the
boat, and rushed toward John as the moccasin drew back and slid over the edge of the pier into
the
water. John had dropped to his knees, supporting his wounded arm with the other hand."
Ann Turner Cook's twenty-six years of teaching high school literature shines through in her
writing.
The plot is first-rate; characters are people who are easy to relate to and care about; the action is
nonstop; and the denouement is excellent. Ms. Cook intertwines a sad but wonderful ghost story
into her plot, which keeps the reader guessing from page one until the delightful finale. I got
totally
caught up in her tale and couldn't put the book down! I personally wish I could have experienced
Ann T. Cook's teaching, because I'll bet she was a superb teacher. Trace Their Shadows is an
entertaining mystery and ghost story that can't help but please.
The Law Of Falling Bodies
Edmund X. DeJesus
iUniverse.com, Inc.
5220 S. 16th St., 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595202004, $17.95 US/$29.95 CAN, GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ www.iuniverse.com
Edmund X. DeJesus is a native of Cranston, Rhode Island. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics, and
an
M.A. and Ph.D. in Physics. He has taught at Middle Tennessee State University and Boston
University, has worked as a programmer, a researcher, and an editor of BYTE magazine. He is
currently a freelance writer, and The Law Of Falling Bodies is his premiere mystery.
Mark Napoli is a physics graduate student at a fictitious university somewhere in New England in
the 1970's. The law of the land is that professors rule on high, with graduate students acting as
their
minions, whom they may or may not enlighten with enough of an education to eventually gain
their
Ph.D.'s. Of course the system is rife for corruption, and a particularly nasty professor, by the name
of Speen (whom we can't help but think of as Professor Spleen) is found murdered, his body
apparently tossed from either the roof or a window of the physics building.
Mark is instantly interviewed by the police, and uses his genius to help them solve the crime
(beginning with a physics demonstration to Mark's newest crush, Lt. Rachel Trask, of why Spleen
had to have been launched out a window):
"'The roof overhangs the building by seven and a half feet,' I began. 'Speen's body, the center of it,
was only three and a half feet from the building. The head was even closer, but that may not
matter.
It is impossible for the body to have fallen inward, toward the building, from the edge of the roof.
So any witness who says that's what happened is lying. Speen couldn't have been out on that roof
at
all.'"
DeJesus launches an intensely funny, poignant, and entertaining first mystery. Mark Napoli is one
of
the sweetest heroes this reviewer has come across. He is engaging in his eccentric genius, fantasy
love life state, and the reader is cheering for him every step of the way. DeJesus' description of
academic life with its misfit characters is accurate and hilarious. The Law Of Falling Bodies begs
for
a sequel from an immensely talented first-time author. This book is a great read, with lots of thrills
and spills; a surprise denouement; and a bittersweet conclusion.
The Jericho Flower
Stephen F. Wilcox
Mystery and Suspense Press/iUniverse.com, Inc.
5220 S. 16th St., Suite 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595215092, $18.95
A former newspaperman, Stephen F. Wilcox now runs an online newspaper, The Wilcox Gazette.
His prior novels, The Twenty-Acre Plot and The Painted Lady, drew rave reviews from the likes
the
the San Francisco Chronicle and Publishers Weekly. Niagra Fall precedes The Jericho Flower, and
all books seethe with murderous plots, quick wit, and rapacious humor.
Elias Hackshaw has a talent for stumbling onto murder. In this fourth installment, he happens
upon a
dead con man, a missing gypsy princess (named Bimbo Wanka, which brings to mind a picture of
Gene Wilder, crazy-eyed and ranting in the chocolate factory), a former high school crush, a
jealous
cop, and his own unique perspective to ensnare himself in the middle of what at first appears to be
the "offing" of a cold-hearted con artist. Elias keeps digging at the story, in part to free himself
from
beatings from Bimbo's overzealous brothers, and in part because that it's what he does best:
"But all my nocturnal cogitating hadn't factored in a role for the Koons and, frankly, I didn't see
where they could possibly fit into the picture. The Koons in cahoots with the Hemfords? It would
make for the oddest of odd couples, the uptight, overachieving, image-conscious Koons and the
profane, slothful, lowlife Hemfords. I mean, picture Ozzie and Harriet playing bridge with Bonnie
and Clyde.
Wilcox is an absolutely first-rate writer, with enough picturesque metaphors to make up for the
brawn he assures the reader he lacks. He does have quite an active libido, which makes for some
strange bedfellows as he embellishes his already multi-faceted, character-laden tale with his own
foibles as he stumbles towards a raucous, followed by a serious, denouement. Suffice to say
Hackshaw emerges with his sense of humor intact; immensely satisfied with his own devilish
methods of revenge and detective work. The Jericho Flower is a well-crafted, imaginative tale that
this reader wished could go on for much longer. It's a great read, and Wilcox deserves acclaim
and
kudos festooned with big sales for this delicious story.
Dark Angel
Ronald E. Baird
iUniverse.com, Inc.
5220 S. 16th., Ste. 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595179754, $14.95 US/$24.95 CAN, www.iuniverse.com
Ron Baird is an award winning writer who has specialized in environmental writing, Gulf War
Syndrome, and fly fishing. Hailing from Boulder, Colorado, he makes the mountains his home and
they figure fully in his first mystery.
Aaron Hemingway is an interesting mix. He is a former basketball star, Vietnam vet, and Denver
cop
who got too close to the evil he was trying to wash out as an undercover narcotics agent. He has
a
daughter, Cassie, whom he hasn't seen in years and a former wife, who sounds like an intense
career
marm. He is living in Jack Springs and workers for the local newspaper, run by a woman who is
interested in reporting some actual news.
Jack Springs has a diverse population; anything from old miners to cowboys and old hippies, with
a
few survivalists thrown in for good measure. When a new mine is proposed by a shady company
with a bad track record, Aaron finds himself in the middle of the quarrel. One of the local
anti-mine
activists is murdered and her body is dumped in front of the newspaper office. Someone appears
to
be stalking Aaron, just as he is reunited with his daughter:
"'Cassie, what are you doing here?' Tears welled up in my eyes and before she could answer, I
reached down, swept her into my arms like holding a baby bird to my chest, its heart beating
wildly.
Or maybe it was my heart. 'Oh Daddy,' she whimpered. Then the dam burst and she cried huge,
breath-robbing sobs as she held me tighter and tighter."
Dark Angel is an extremely well-written novel with tons of beautiful metaphors and a slap-bang
plot.
Baird's characters are finely wrought, and the action is non-stop. The backdrop is the gorgeous
mountains of Colorado, with its diverse population all conspiring against one another. Baird's
passages range from utterly beautiful and simple descriptions of nature to nerve-wracking
accounts
of Aaron going into battle to save his daughter from the bad guys. He has a highly developed
socio-political conscience that forms an integral part of this very timely plot about. This is one
heck
of a tale, and hopefully Mr. Baird has a follow-up that he is presently writing.
Even In Darkness
Jeffrey Aran Leever
Writers Club Press/iUniverse.com, Inc.
5220 S. 16th St., Suite 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595208649, $14.95, GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ www.iuniverse.com
Jeffrey Aran Leever is a publications manager for a nonprofit organization in Colorado. An
English/writing major from the University of Nebraska (Kearney), he presently lives in Arvada,
Colorado. He has co-authored two published non-fiction books.
Colleges often have immense power with the locals of the communities they serve...power which
can
be turned for dark purposes. When Jay Downing's friend Reed Manley doesn't appear for a
preappointed "night on the town," and some strange girl tries to lure Jay into the University's long
unused underground tunnels, Jay begins to fear for his friend's life. The police treat Jay as if he is
on
drugs, and when Reed's body appears outside of town, even the coroner seems to be in on the
coverup. But it is the professors at Jay's school in Stratton who act the most bizarre:
"Jay looked again at his professor, and wondered what the man knew. What pieces of the truth he
held. It was as if Lanum was trying to hold back something, and yet share it at the same time. As
if
there'd been something Jay had done that gave Lanum reason for contempt. It had to have been
something independent of their never-quite-so-serious interactions in class. But what?"
The idea that a university setting could be used for nefarious purposes, and that professors (who,
after all, are supposed to represent the creme de la creme) could be arch-fiends stirs up a shiver of
recognition in all of us. (Who hasn't dreamt about not attending class and not knowing where their
final was?)
Even In Darkness is a well written, spine-tingling, Gothic, Steven Kingish novel that grips the
reader
from page one. Leever's use of uncertainty in speech, action, and tone puts the reader into a
nervous
state from the beginning. It is an excellent tool to produce the results he wants, which is to scare
us
to death and keep us turning those pages. Even In Darkness is an great first effort in the genre for
Leever, and presents him as a new talent to be reckoned with. It is entertaining, scary, infuriating,
and deeply satisfying, all at once. A great read.
The Teed-Off Ghost
Lee Tyler
Fithian Press
PO Box 1525, Santa Barbara, CA 93102
ISBN: 1564743896, $12.95, e-mail: dandd@danielpublishing.com
Lee Tyler is a veteran travel writer and current member of the Golf Writers Association of
America.
Other books include The Case Of The Missing Links.
Hawaii is full of mystery and romance, and when Harry "Win" Winslow and June Jacobs (who are
self-described top golfing sleuths) are talked into watching over the new Mauna Makai golf
course
for a week, they have no idea that they will be dealing with more than just political mischief.
Mauna
Makai has an ancient wall, known as "papohaku" running through it. The wall is both the draw
and
the originator of many of the problems Martha Masters and Doug Banner have been having in
getting the golf course online in time for a big celebrity wedding and the launching of the golf
course:
"As they lurched along toward the first hole, Ted said, 'I live up-country, up there, about ten miles
away.' He pointed to a mountain in the distance. 'See that rainbow? That's Waimea, where I live.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, I hear this golf course calling to me. Like it's crying for
help.
So I get up at like two in the morning and get dressed and drive down here to check on things.
My
wife thinks I'm crazy. Doug here thinks I'm superstitious. Me, I'm just doing my job. And you
know
what? Every time I've come down here, there's been something screwy. Like majorly wrong.' He
turned to Doug and said, 'Explain that with your mainland logic.'"
Tyler has combined the game of golf, ancient Hawaiian mythology, and a couple of scatterbrained
sleuths to produce a whimsical tale about love, ghosts, and the history and culture of Hawaii. The
Teed-Off Ghost is an excellent book to pull out on a cold winter day, as Tyler's passages about
luaus
can't help but warm the spirit. Tyler pokes fun at the obsession of golfers, while treating us to a
warm Hawaiian experience complete with lots of terminology for the uninitiated. She adds island
mystery, an entertaining and irascible ghost, and handsome natives who play havoc with the ladies'
hearts. The Teed-Off Ghost is more about getting into the native spirits than it is about murder
and
mayhem, but it is a fun read nevertheless.
The Fractal Murders
Mark Cohen
Muddy Gap Press
PO Box 1801, Boulder, CO 80306-1801
ISBN: 097189860X, $13.95
A Denver native, Mark Cohen graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington,
then
attended law school at the University of Colorado. He practiced law in Nebraska, served as an Air
Force Judge Advocate, and now resides in Boulder, Colorado, where he serves as a municipal
judge.
He has written several articles, and probably many more briefs. The Fractal Murders is his first
mystery.
Pepper Keane is a retired attorney and former Federal Prosecutor who is now living and working
in
Boulder with his two dogs, Buck and Wheat. He is hired by Jane Smyders, a math professor at the
University of Colorado when three of her colleagues who specialize in her area of expertise,
fractal
geometry, are either murdered or die by suspicious means. Pepper has enough of a background,
having been a former Marine JAG, and connections galore from past and present affiliations, to
find
the common thread that connects the deaths. Pepper is an interesting man, with an affection for
Diet
Coke, rock and roll, reading Philosophy, and exercise; an unusual observation of sizing people up
(often associated with what they are wearing); and an encyclopedic knowledge and grasp of many
subjects. Then there is the attraction he feels for his new client, Jane Smyers:
"We continued running and I thought about Jayne Smyers. She was pretty, no doubt about that.
And
she was certainly smart. But some other quality was drawing me to her. She possessed a certain
perky optimism something I felt I lacked. I tried to put her out of my mind, but I kept hearing
that
Sam Cooke song. Maybe by being an A student, I could win her love for me.
The Fractal Murders is an intensely entertaining book that is simply delicious to read. The action
is
well-paced, Pepper's character is a nice package of enough brawn, brains, experience, logic, and
sensuality to make him a hero of sorts, but with enough flaws to make him a believable character.
The plot is well charted and covers many areas where Mr. Cohen has something to teach that is
interesting without overshadowing the story. Pepper Keane is a nice mix of sensitivity and
intellect,
with just enough experience to give his character depth. Cohen does a superb job of keeping the
reader guessing, and even the end poses a bit of a love puzzle. Cohen leaves us clamoring for
more.
Exceptionally clear writing makes it a great read!
The Self-Publishing Manual
Dan Poynter
Para Publishing
PO Box 8206 Santa Barbara, CA 93118-8206
ISBN: 1568600739 $19.95 www.amazon.com
Dan Poynter is an entrepreneur who discovered publishing when he spent eight years writing a
book
about parachutes and realized he probably wouldn't find a publisher. He wrote a book in 1973
about
hang gliding, which became a best seller, and he was hooked. To date he has published over 80
books and revisions which have been translated into many languages. He has written a book on
what
he calls "the new publishing model."
Anyone who is even remotely involved in the publishing world knows that new authors don't
stand
much of a chance with publishers. The lucky few who do succeed wait a long time for their books
to
be published and often lose control of any profits. Mr. Poynter correctly points to eight main
reasons
why someone would want to publish their own book:
1. To make more money,
2. Speed
3. To keep control of your book
4. No one will read your manuscript
5. Self-publishing is good business
6. Self-publishing will help you think like a publisher
7. You will gain self-confidence and self-esteem
8. Finally, you may have no other choice."
The Self-Publishing Manual (How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book) is a bible on how to
write, start your own publishing company, produce your book, advertise your book, decide what
to
charge, promote your book, and how to find your audience and get it sold. Mr. Poynter is a very
concise and efficient writer who knows how to get his point across with his audience's
pocketbook
in mind. He explains the pitfalls of the publishing business and how to get the most bang for your
buck. He does a great job of explaining the distribution end of the business...something very few
people other than librarians and book distributors understand.
In short, Mr. Poynter knows his stuff and can offer some very good advice to all the fledgling
authors out in book land. He even thoughtfully includes a chapter entitled "Coping with Being
Published," which will help the new author transition from private to public life and what that
entails.
He includes a book calendar to help the author stay focused and organized during the process,
and
ends with a very useful appendix and glossary of publishing terms. This is an invaluable book for
anyone with enough courage to make the foray into publishing. Mr. Poynter deserves a hearty
thank
you and congratulations from his grateful disciples.
A Flash Of Emerald
J.M. Taylor
Blue Eagle Press
23745 Oakside Boulevard, Lutz, Florida 33549-6904
ISBN: 1879043084, $14.99, GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ www.BlueEaglePress.com
J.M. Taylor has an impressive array of talents, to say the least. He served with the 101st Airborne
Division as platoon leader and battalion commander; served at the Pentagon, in Germany, the
Middle East, and Vietnam. He is a trained scuba diver; parachute trained for airborne assault;
worked as a systems engineer; and finally, is a writer. In short, he puts the rest of us to
shame!
Harry Stoner began his career as part of the failed attempt to free Cuba in the 1960's. Set in
Southern Florida, home of the Southern Cross and the life enhancing "flash of emerald" at sunset
for
those lucky enough to catch it, Harry Stoner returns from his present assignment in Virginia to
help
his daughter with a "problem." That problem turns out to be her husband Lou's relatives, who
have
added drug trafficking to their import/export business. Lou has stumbled upon the "goods," and
now
his Uncle Lastero is threatening his life unless he joins in with the family "business." That business
turns into money for guns, and Stoner finds himself in the middle of a plot to detonate a nuclear
bomb, as well as being the object of the terrorists' hatred. Harry himself has unwitting been the
target of terrorists, whose attempt to kill him resulted in the death of his wife, Lynn. To catch the
terrorists and save his daughter and husband from danger, he must return to his military training,
old
friends, and keen thinking of a survivor:
"When he's been really working, not just clerking, Stoner had squirreled away the old identities,
depositing small amounts of money in the scattered accounts and making charges against the
cards,
keeping everything legit. Back then he'd thought toward the future. He had almost let those days
slip
away. He thought back. When was the last time he had used the bank card? The expiration date
came up next month. He had let the old days slide way back in his memory."
A Flash Of Emerald is a hard-hitting, exciting spy game story with lots of subplots, intense and
charismatic characters, and enough action to glue the reader to the book. Harry Stoner is a
larger-than-life character who singlehandedly takes on a Florida drug ring and a terrorist group at
the same time. Taylor lends his considerable expertise to the story to give the reader insight into
just
what the military does to keep the bad guys out and to police their own. A great read!
Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer
Bethany's Bookshelf
A Dress For Mona
Mark Perry
5th Epoch Press
c/o Discover Writing Press
PO Box 264, Shoreham, VT 05770
1931492026 $10.00 www.adressformona.org
A Dress For Mona is a powerful play by Mark Perry and based upon a true historical account. A
Dress For Mona is set in 1982 Iran when the Bahai (an offshoot of Islam and the largest religious
minority within Iran) were subjected to brutal prosecution, imprisonment, and even murder.
Young
Mona is a Bahai believer, and thus a primary target for arrest and execution. Her vision of three
dresses, each representing a different direction possible for her life, and her difficult choices
between
faith and sacrifice are vividly presented in this gripping human account, in many ways a
modern-day
mirror of the fanaticism portrayed in another great classic, "The Crucible". A Dress For Mona is
an
absorbing, thought-provoking, and at times emotionally wrenching drama which highly
recommended for either personal readings or community theater productions.
The Woodchuck's Guide To Gardening
Ron Krupp
Whetstone Books
8 Lyons Avenue, South Burlington, Vermont 05403
0915731053 $15.95 www.woodchuck37.com
The Woodchuck's Guide To Gardening by Vermont organic gardener Ron Krupp, is a thoroughly
"user friendly" guidebook written especially for aspiring organic and biodynamic home gardeners.
Embracing thrift and the practical considerations as symbolized by the woodchuck, The
Woodchuck's Guide To Gardening provides a wealth of tips, tricks, and techniques for keeping
soil
healthy, overseeing nutritious produce through all four seasons, foraging for wild plants, teaching
one's children to garden, and a great deal more. Written in down-to-earth, accessible language for
gardeners of all experience levels and backgrounds, The Woodchuck's Guide To Gardening is an
enthusiastically recommended addition to personal and community library gardening reference
collections and supplemental reading lists.
Comadres
Nasario Garcia, editor
Western Edge Press
126 Candelario Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
1889921157 $17.95 www.mountian-press/otherpages/catalog/WestEdge.htm
Compiled and edited by Nasario Garcia (Professor of Languages, New Mexico Highlands
University), Comadres: Hispanic Women Of The Rio Puerco Valley is a unique and ground
breaking
survey of Hispanic-American women and their manifold contributions to the evolving culture of
New Mexico, especially during the first ten years of statehood. Ranch life, the evolution of
Spanish
dialects, the struggles to birth and raise children, and so much more are accessibly covered in this
unique anthology of vignettes, anecdotes, and revealing glimpses into New Mexican daily life.
Black-and-white photographs enhance this outstanding collection of brief yet personable tales,
each
of which is rendered in both Spanish and English. Comadres is a very strongly recommended
addition to Women's Studies, American History, and Southwest Regional Studies academic
reference collections and supplemental reading lists.
Night Fishing In Galilee
Kenneth Arnold
Cowley Publications
907 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139
1561011959 $12.95 1-800-225-1534
In Night Fishing In Galilee: The Journey Toward Spiritual Wisdom, Kenneth Arnold (Director of
Communications, Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts) offers keen insights into the twenty-first
chapter of the Gospel According To John, as well as the author's own personal journey of
reflection,
maturity, and spiritual evolution. From a close examination of the ethics and life of the way of
Jesus
Christ, to cross-comparison with other religions around the world, to thought-provoking
commentary on the truths expressed within psalms, Night Fishing In Galilee is an intellectual,
emotional, and faithful exploration of what it means to believe and live in accordance with
God.
Race And The Cosmos
Barbara A. Holmes
Trinity Press International
PO Box 1321, Harrisburg, PA 17105
1563383772 $20.00 www.trinitypress.com
Race And The Cosmos: An Invitation To View The World Differently by Barbara A. Holmes
(Associate Professor of Ethics and African American Religious Studies, Memphis Theological
Seminary) is a compelling and insightful metaphysical study of cosmology, race, and what it
means
to awaken to full liberation. From the eternal quest for finding meaning to one's life, to
interpreting
what it truly is to be reasonable and tolerant in the grand scheme of things, Race And The
Cosmos is
offers a new and recommended look at the basic philosophies that shape our lives and how we
view
the universe.
The Odyssey Of Enlightenment
Berthold Madhukar Thompson
Wisdom Editions
204 West Lake Street, Suite C, Mt. Shasta, CA 96067
1931254095 $19.00 1-888-267-4446
The Odyssey Of Enlightenment: Rare Interviews With Enlightened Teachers Of Our Time by
Berthold Madhukar Thompson is a selection of interviews with twelve East Indian spiritual
teachers,
each of whom are widely respected for their enlightened wisdom. Hindu guidance to life-long
harmony, the full depth of the immortal truth within Socrates' classic phrase "Know thyself," as
well
as insights on the meaning of destiny and God's will round out this superbly presented anthology
of
spiritual acumen. Essentially a chronicle of Thompson's personal quest for spiritual meaning and
eternal truths, The Odyssey Of Enlightenment is a welcome and highly recommended contribution
to
Eastern Spirituality reference collections and Hindu Studies supplemental reading lists.
Secret Of The Vajra World
Reginald A. Ray
Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Horticultural Hall
300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115-4544
157062917X $18.95 shambhala.com
Secret Of The Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism Of Tibet by Reginald A. Ray (Professor of
Buddhist Studies, Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado) is the second and final volume of "The
World of Tantric Buddhism" series from Shambhala Publications. A straightforward presentation
written in plain accessible terms for readers at all Buddhist studies and experience levels, Secret
Of
The Vajra World deftly explores the foundations of Vajrayana, the essence of Tantric Buddhist
philosophies, and applications of Buddhist principles and insights to one's own personal life,
bodhisattvas in the world, and a great deal more. Secret Of The Vajra Worlds is a very welcome,
superbly presented, truly comprehensive introduction focusing upon a unique and profoundly
important aspect of Buddhist spiritual practice.
The Afterlife Of Trees
Brian Bartlett
McGill-Queen's University Press
3430 McTavish Street, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 1X9
0773519106 $14.95 1-800-387-0141
The Afterlife Of Trees is a selection of Brian Bartlett's memorable, free-verse poems that carry
both
the pedantic nuance of events of everyday life, and a personal respect for the majesty and grace of
the soul that trees, birds, and nature have given to humankind. The Afterlife Of Trees is
recommended as an insightful body of work reflecting communion with nature amid a culture
choked with the clutter of material things. "To a red-eyed vireo: Minimalist of the tree tops / more
than a scrap of dawn chorus, all day / you ask and answer one question / in two-to-four-note
phrases, you're drawl's inflections / reversing, a rise giving way to a fall, a fall / to a rise / ask,
answer / ask answer / Is it fair to say you sound like a lecturer who won't / move on to the next
point, / or some weary barker / slowly going mad with the monotony of selling?"
Imagining Rhetoric
Janet Carey Eldred and Peter Mortensen
University of Pittsburgh Press
Eureka Building, Fifth Floor, 3400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
0822941821 $34.95 1-412-383-2456
Collaboratively researched and written by Janet Carey Eldred (Associate Professor of English,
University of Kentucky) and Peter Mortensen (Associate Professor of English, University of
Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign), Imagining Rhetoric: Composing Women Of The Early United States is a
scholarly and revealing study of how women's writing developed in the era between the American
Revolution and the Civil War. A truly fascinating look at how educated women used the power of
the pen to promote civic goals, as well as how a new female readership emerged and changed the
as
yet fledgling book industry, Imagining Rhetoric is a highly recommended contribution to Women's
Studies and Literary History reference collections and academic reading lists.
The Coast Of Maine Book
Nancy English
Berkshire House Publishers
480 Pleasant St., Suite 5, Lee, Massachusetts 01238
1581570589 $18.95 1-800-321-8526
Now in an expanded and thoroughly updated fifth edition, The Coast Of Maine Book by Nancy
English is an excellent and thorough guide for tourists and travelers who want to explore the fun,
wonder, and richness to be found along the coast of Maine. An excellent, comprehensive, highly
recommended informational resource, The Coast Of Maine Book offers everything from tidal
zones
and bicycling advice, to a host of recommended lodging and dining places, historic buildings, tips
on
what to expect from the weather, seasonal events, shopping, and much more.
Is It A Date Or Just Coffee?
Mo Brownsey
Alyson Publications
Box 4371, Los Angeles, CA 90078-4371
1555837271 $13.95 www.alyson.com
Mo Brownsey's Is It A Date Or Just Coffee?: The Gay Girl's Guide To Dating, Sex, And
Romance
is a practical guide, laced with wry humor, about countless problems, confusing questions, and
delicate issues of lesbian dating, sex, and romance. From distinguishing between potential lovers
and
just plain friends, to monogamy vs. polyamory, to the special hurdles of the bisexual and the
bi-curious, Is It A Date Or Just Coffee? doesn't have the answers to everything but does have
opinions, suggestions, and simple advice for just about anything. Is It A Date Or Just Coffee is a
highly recommended, gently-mannered, tongue-in-cheek guidebook written by a gay gal, for gay
gals.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Taylor's Bookshelf
Soldier Of The Legion
Marshall S. Thomas
Timberwolf Press
202 N. Allen St., Suite A, Allen, TX 75013
1587520397 $14.95 TimberwolfPress.com
Book one of the "Beta 3" series, Soldier Of The Legion by Marshall S. Thomas is an epic science
fiction novel. Set in the far-flung future, Soldier Of The Legion chronicles the struggles of a brave
squad of Legionnaires who must fight to survive horrific battles against a corrupt, slave-raiding
empire -- and a far worse force of inhumans. A perilous, exciting space saga, Soldier Of The
Legion
is enthusiastically recommended reading for fans of the science fiction action/adventure
genre.
Flying The Alaska Wild
Mort Mason
Voyageur Press
123 North Second Street, PO Box 338, Stillwater, MN 55082
0896585891 $19.95 www.voyageurpress.com
Flying The Alaska Wild: The Adventures And Misadventures Of An Alaska Bush Pilot by Mort
Mason (who has flown more than 18,000 hours over the Alaskan outback bush country) is an
amazing collection of true stories from the airborne adventures of an Alaska Bush pilot, who met
challenges ranging from dealing with dangerous headwinds, to the hazards of ice on the plane, to
participating in search and rescue missions, and more. From cover to cover, Flying The Alaska
Wild
is an exhilarating and highly recommended account of an exciting occupation that demands steady
nerves and a courageous heart.
U.S. Army Survival Handbook
Department of the Army
The Lyons Press
PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437
1585745561 $14.95 1-800-243-0495
Originally prepared and issued by the United States Department of the Army, the U.S. Army
Survival Handbook is a definitive guide to survival in a variety of outdoors locations and
circumstances, especially when one has access to few tools or personal gear. A standard issue
survival manual for U.S. Special Operations Forces and air force pilots, the U.S. Army Survival
Handbook is also a first-rate reference and highly recommended primer for campers, hikers,
travelers, and anyone else who ventures into unknown territory. From avoiding and dealing with
dangerous snakes, fish, and insects to direction finding to survival techniques for cold weather,
open
sea and seashores, desert, and more, U.S. Army Survival Handbook is a definitive resource that
can
(and should) be a part of every family and community reference library collection.
Music In Ancient Israel/Palestine
Joachim Braun
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503
0802844774 $30.00 www.eerdmans.com
Music In Ancient Israel/Palestine: Archaeological, Written, And Comparative Sources by Israeli
musicologist Joachim Braun is the first truly comprehensive study of the musical culture in
Israel/Palestine in antiquity, as interpreted from the available archaeological record. An
engrossing,
informative, academically endowed exploration of the crafting of musical instruments and the
evolution of musical expression as understood through evidence, as well as scholarly hypothesis
stretching from the stone age to the Hellenistic-Roman period, Music In Ancient Israel/Palestine
is a
singularly amazing and very strongly recommended analysis which is a welcome an valued
contribution to both Music History and Mideast Archaeology reference shelves and supplemental
reading lists.
Carl B. Stokes And The Rise of Black Political Power
Leonard N. Moore
University of Illinois Press
1325 South Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820
0252027604 $34.95 www.press.uillinois.edu
Carl B. Stokes And The Rise Of Black Political Power by Leonard N. Moore (Assistant Professor
of
History and Director of the African and African American Studies Program, Louisiana State
University) is a meticulous portrayal of Mayor Carl Stokes of Cleveland and the impact his tenure
has had on local and national African-American politics. Individual chapters address a range of
issues such as "the making of a mayor"; black capitalism; internal political power struggles; and
much, much more. A well-researched and scholarly examination of executive government in
microcosm in general, and its reflections in the broader scope of African-American politics in
particular, Carl B. Stokes And The Rise Of Black Political Power is a welcome and highly
recommended addition to academic Black Studies and Political Science reference collections and
reading lists.
Palestinian Religious Terrorism
Yonah Alexander
Transnational Publishers
410 Saw Mill River Road, Ardsley, NY 10502
157105247X $40.00 1-914-693-5100 1-914-693-4430 (fax)
Palestinian Religious Terrorism: Hamas And Islamic Jihad by Yonah Alexander (Senior Fellow
and
Director, International Center for Terrorism Studies, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and
Director, Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies) is a straightforward, authoritative
presentation of the history, composition, organization, and workings of the Islamic terrorist
organization Hamas. Palestinian Religious Terrorism covers everything from the Hamas official
charter, ideology, tactics, and time line, to copies of selected Hamas documents including military
communiques and press releases. A highly factual book written to present solid information with
academic objectivity on a ruthless and deadly terrorist organization, Palestinian Religious
Terrorism
is an invaluable and timely contribution to the growing library of International Terrorist reference
materials.
By Reef And Palm
Louis Becke
Dixon-Price Publishing
9105 Leprechaun Lane, Kingston, WA 98346
1929516215 $11.99 www.dixonprice.com
Originally in the late 1890s, By Reef And Palm is Australian author Louis Becke's thoroughly
amusing collection of short-story "yarns" about daily life in the Pacific Islands that has been
brought
out in a new addition by Dixon-Price Publishing and will aptly serve to introduce a whole new
generation of readers to the work of a man reputed in his lifetime to be the "Kipling of the
Pacific".
Reflecting a lawless era in candid, nothing-is-sacred prose, By Reef And Palm is a unique,
captivating, enthusiastically recommended compendium of short stories showcasing the trials and
travails a century gone "Paradise".
Experiencing Dominion
Thomas W. Gallant
University of Notre Dame Press
310 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556
0268028028 $19.00 undpress.nd.edu
Experiencing Dominion: Culture, Identity, And Power In The British Mediterranean by Thomas
W.
Gallant (Professor of Greek History, University of Florida) is scholarly and historical survey
revealing the anthropological, cultural, and social ramifications of British influence on Greece and
the Ionian Islands, especially during the nineteenth century. From legal cases of slander, to the
conflicts of religion and identity, and much more, Experiencing Dominion is an evenhanded and
highly recommended study of historical events offering a wealth of thoughtful insights into the
evolution of Greek and Ionian society.
Government's Greatest Achievements
Paul C. Light
The Brookings Institution Press
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20036
0815706049 $19.95 www.brookings.edu
Government's Greatest Achievements: From Civil Rights To Homeland Security by Paul C. Light
(Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution) is an informed history and celebration
showcasing twenty-five of the American government's policy successes from 1944 to 1999.
Documenting and highlighting the eradication of polio, the rebuilding of Europe after World War
II,
the strides made forward against racial discrimination, the reduction of poverty among the elderly,
expanding the right to vote, and much, much more, Government's Greatest Achievements is an
extraordinary, uplifting read which offers striking and sometimes even surprising facts. A very
strongly recommended addition to both academic and community library Political Science and
American History collections, Government's Greatest Achievements is a welcome antidote to the
usual drumbeat of media criticism and endemic public skepticism.
Gentleman Spies
John Fisher
Sutton Publishing Limited
260 Fifth Avnue, New York, NY 10001
0750926988 $29.95 1-800-462-6420
Gentleman Spies: Intelligence Agents In The British Empire And Beyond by historian John Fisher
is
a truly fascinating and informative look at political undermining between nations since before the
first world war. The evolution of a British foreign intelligence bureau, originally called SIS and
which later evolved into the legendary MI6, whose mission was to specifically provide vital
information about activities stemming from the furthest corners of the British empire, is presented
with incredible anecdotal tales of intrigue and deceit. An amazing, deftly researched look at the
cutthroat machinations of international history, Gentleman Spies is totally absorbing reading from
first page to last!
Submerged
Daniel Lenihan
Newmarket Press
18 East 48th Street, New York, NY 10017
1557045054 $25.95 www.newmarketpress.com
Submerged: Adventures Of America's Most Elite Underwater Archaeology Team by professional
diver and archaeologist Daniel Lenihan is the amazing story of the award-winning Submerged
Cultural Resources Unit team of the U.S. National Park Service. Lenihan guides the reader on an
incredible tour of the team's finds and the archaeological work accomplished from 1975 down to
the
present day. In their bid to retrieve the bodies of drowned divers, recover lost artifacts, survey Isle
Royale shipwrecks in Lake Superior, and so much more, Submerged provides archaeology
students
and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in underwater archaeology an incredible
window into real-life archaeological adventures.
Gettysburg: An Alternate History
Peter G. Tsouras
Greenhill Books
c/o Stackpole Books
5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
1853674826 $18.95 www.greenhillbooks.com
Gettysburg: An Alternate History is an epic saga by Peter G. Tsouras that explores what might
have
happened if a few twists of fate had significantly altered the course of the battle at Gettysburg,
and
therefore the American Civil War. Written with close heed to the actual events, Gettysburg: An
Alternate History is a fascinating "what-if" journey of speculative fancy, often told through the
eyes
of soldiers struggling to survive the bloody battlefield. Gettysburg: An Alternate History is
especially
recommended reading for Civil War buffs, and will have great appeal for "Alternate Universe"
science fiction fans as well.
John Taylor
Reviewer
Whelan's Bookshelf
Governance.com
Elaine Ciulla Kamarck and Joseph S. Nye Jr., editors
Brookings Institution Press
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036
0815702175 $18.95 www.brookings.edu
Collaboratively compiled and edited by Elaine Ciulla Kamarck (Lecturer in Public Policy , John F.
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) and Joseph S. Nye Jr. (Dean, Kennedy
School
of Government, Harvard University), Governance.com: Democracy In The Information Age is a
selection of impressive scholarly essays focusing how leaps and bounds in modern technology and
the Internet are directly affecting American governmental policy and performance. Exploring the
link
between power and information, and drawing broad conclusions and implications from mounting
evidence, Governance.com offers an informed and informative look into the near future, and
where
the democratization of information is ultimately leading.
Narrating The Arctic
Michael Bravo and Sverker Sorlin, editors
Science History Publications
c/o Watson Publishing International
PO Box 1390, Nantucket, MA 02554-1390
088135385X $39.95 www.shpusa.com
Collaboratively compiled and edited by Michael Bravo (Science and Development Research
Group,
Sott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University) and Sverker Sorlin (Chair of Environmental
History at Umea University, Sweden), Narrating The Arctic: A Cultural History Of Nordic
Scientific
Practices is an outstanding collection of seminal essays by erudite authors concerning the history
of
arctic exploration. From Inuit exploratory ventures, to conflicting claims of history, to the Danish
arctic research of eighty years ago, to Swedish arctic travels of a hundred and fifty years ago,
Narrating The Arctic is a vivid, intense examination and scholarly analysis of the historical quest
to
venture onto, and discover more about, the very top of the world.
Is Nothing Sacred?
Don Cupitt
Fordham University Press
2546 Belmont Avenue, University Box L, Bronx, NY 10458-5172
0823222039 $40.00 1-800-247-6553
Is Nothing Sacred?: The Non-Realist Philosophy of Religion by educator and philosopher Don
Cupitt is an outstanding selection of informative and challenging essays examining a "non-realist"
interpretation of Christian doctrine. Persuasively arguing for a "kingdom" version of Christianity
that
resonates more strongly with the original Jewish Jesus Christ, Professor Cupitt draws his
philosophy
and theology in part from the wisdom of Kant and Kierkegaard, while also accepting insights from
Buddhism and the contemporary philosopher Richard Rorty. Is Nothing Sacred? is a provocative,
intriguing discussion, and highly recommended for academic philosophy, theology, and Christian
Studies collections and supplemental reading lists.
A Season Of Grief
Ann Dawson
Ave Maria Press
PO Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556
0877939780 $12.95 www.avemariapress.com
A Season Of Grief: A Comforting Companion For Difficult Days by newspaper columnist Ann
Dawson is a compilation of quotes, reflections, prayers, poems, and heartfelt sentiment compiled
for
the specific purpose of offering hope and comfort to those surviving difficult loss. A Season Of
Grief
is very highly recommended as being an unusually thoughtful collection, with each vignette or
passage brief enough for quick browsing, and a volume that presents a variety of differing, yet
sincere, perspectives on dealing with the loss of a loved one.
Thomas G. Whelan
Reviewer
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
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