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Reviewer's Bookwatch

Volume 3, Number 9 September 2003 Home | RBW Index

Table of Contents

Reviewer's Choice Vicki's Bookshelf Sullivan's Bookshelf
Stephanie's Bookshelf Rick's Bookshelf Pogo's Bookshelf
Paul's Bookshelf Magdalena's Bookshelf Lori's Bookshelf
Leonhardt's Bookshelf Jodi's Bookshelf Jennifer's Bookshelf
Hodgins' Bookshelf Harold's Bookshelf Gorden's Bookshelf
Fortenberry's Bookshelf Diana's Bookshelf Christy's Bookshelf
Brenda's Bookshelf Alyice's Bookshelf Taylor's Bookshelf
Bethany's Bookshelf Burroughs' Bookshelf Carson's Bookshelf
Buhle's Bookshelf Greenspan's Bookshelf Vogel's Bookshelf
Betsy's Bookshelf    

Reviewer's Choice

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong.
Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow
Sourcebooks Inc.
1935 Brookdale Road, #139, Naperville, IL 60563
ISBN: 1402200455, $16.95, 1-800-432-7444

Shauna Singh Baldwin
Reviewer

To many Americans, Edith Piaf and Maurice Chevalier represent France. For others, France is the place where style matters more than substance, the country that broadened our adjectival palette to describe fine wines. To others, it is the country that has been "ungrateful" for being saved in WWII, that inexplicably challenged George Bush's plans for unilateral military intervention in a foreign country. The Canadian view of France is less extreme. Many English-Canadians associate France with de Gaulle's 1967 "Vive le Quebec Libre" that was interpreted as support for Quebec separatism, others with cheese, food as religion, and the creation of the EEC. So why do most of us love France but hate the French?

In Sixty Million Frenchman Can't be Wrong, coauthors Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow with 10 years of business journalism apiece, renovate our ideas about this paradoxical country. French-Canadian and English Canadian respectively, this married couple moved to France and spent two years researching this rare book of cultural anthropology for the general reader.

Like many cultural guides to France Polly Platt's French or Foe?, and Sally Adamson's Culture Shock! France they enumerate many ways in which France is "a clock that runs on a different set of gears" but Benoit and Barlow also show us how it got that way. In the process they challenge our cultural assumptions and expectations. Reasoning from history and geography, the authors explain French differences, offering cross cultural statistics and anecdotal comparisons along the way.

Take North American myths of France as insular: the authors describe France's continuing global reach as a still-surviving colonial power. Using Guadeloupe as example, they describe the homogenous administration of colonial possessions. Why is France so far behind even less-developed countries in its business use of the Internet? The authors introduce us to France's Minitel system. Why are the French against globalization, as Thomas Freidman complains in The Lexus and the Olive Tree? The authors tell us the French accept globalization, but are against the model and impact of the current progress of exploitive globalization as promoted by the US and the WTO. The French, like many other countries, have even proposed a global tax on financial transactions for redistribution of wealth from wealthy states to poor nations, a "solidarity tax."

Keenly aware of the power differentials between French and English in the foreign and business affairs of France and North America, Sixty Million Frenchman Can't be Wrong celebrates French self-assurance, French interest in international politics. A recurring theme is the impact of that provocative and consummate politician, Charles de Gaulle in setting France on an independent path in foreign policy and economics. In every area, the authors show how de Gaulle's single-minded pursuit of French interest, from refusing American control and reconstruction after WWII to creating the myth of total French resistance to the German occupation, to the creation of the Fourth Republic and France's current democratic institutions.

From a book co-authored with a woman, you might expect more information about French women and French feminism. Is it still "Vive la Difference" - how have cultural expectations for French women changed over the years? But beyond noting that France passed a law in 2000 that requires 50% female representation among political candidates presented by any party, the authors skirt this issue.

They replace our myths with a picture a highly authoritarian and formerly homogenous country just emerging from the control of Paris and its elites, waking to local representation, decision making and participative democracy. A country that has only in the last ten years woken to the assimilation problems of its Muslim population, and realized the dangers posed by its many conservative, anti-semitic and fascist elements. A powerful participant on the global stage. A country not so different from the USA.

Sixty Million Frenchman Can't be Wrong is a delightful book, a must-read before your first trip to France, and also one that can illuminate, interpret and deepen your last experience of the country.

Staying Sane at an Insane Time
Adrienne J. Rosenberg, MSW
Mystic Publishers
www.successforchange.com
ISBN: 0972784012 $12.95 Adrienne2171@aol.com

Sarah Lee Marks
Reviewer

I started reading Adrienne's book when all was calm in my life --then all h-ll broke loose.

Words are often an attempt to ease the pain of our affliction. Making sense of the trials that prevail upon all of us at one time or another is what Rosenberg does for a living. Aptly named, Staying Sane at an Insane Time is not a clich‚. We all question our sanity when control and comprehension appear beyond our grasp.

Coping skills from A-to-Z covers every possible trauma, conflict or personal crossroads including; Dealing with the Unexpected, Coping with Financial Insecurity, Dealing with the loss of a Loved One, Weaning away from Addictions, The Pain of Divorce, Retirement and the Adjustment to Aging. Young adult to golden agers will find solice in this work. Adrienne's backround in social work and therapy mix well with her teaching skills, providing a concise GET TO THE POINT approach, that keeps the chapters short and simple making for an easy read. The Here's How-To-Fix-It, as in the problem or issue, is not so much a software patch but a well scripted lesson plan.

Bullet points carry the reader through the logical progression, including a time frame for the process and the anticipated results. When discussing the concept of risk taking, Adrienne offers a list of steps and suggestions beginning with the age old Ben Franklin list. She then adds; "Talk to others you trust who have your best interest at heart " and "Be certain to the best of your knowledge that you are making decisions based on strong facts and being in the best mindset, rather than out of desperation, anger or fear. You want to feel good as you change the course of your life, or even (as you) decide to keep things the same." She avoids the obvious: Don't Panic, Listen to your Inner Spirit, the new age platitudes that often leave one Ohmmming in hopes of a handwritten note from the other side.

The concepts Adrienne imparts are steeped in common sense, and professional coaching. I learned to slowdown and pay attention to my feelings. First by understanding that not accepting all the responsibility was permission-based and I needed to give myself permission to slow down. Once I had made the time to listen by reducing my work load, I was better equipped to focus on my plan for change. Writing down thoughts, lists, ideas and issues as a way to sort through the noise, is a big part of the "Staying Sane " program.

This book is a keeper for your reference shelf of life.

A Journey of Work-Life Renewal: The Power to Recharge and Rekindle Passion in your Life
Bonnie Michaels and Michael Seef
Managing Work & Family, Inc.
912 Crain Street, Evanston, IL 60202
ISBN 0972811508 $13.95

Roger E. Herman
Reviewer

Educational, Inspiring

Ever wish you could just take some time off? I mean, real time off. Like a year. Just travel with your spouse, another loved one, a friend or even by yourself? A year-long sabbatical could be a fascinating, rewarding, and renewing experience. If we were honest with each other, we'd probably all admit that we'd love to live this way. It's possible - and practical for the right kinds of people.

To learn if this is right for you, it's wise to do some exploring - into what others have done. Bonnie and Michael, husband and wife, took the Big Leap. Most of the year they spent together, but they did separate for a while to pursue their own needs, their own dreams. Their time was spent volunteering, sightseeing, learning, and renewing. This book tells their story - the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's a captivating read that draws you in and makes you want to read more while you dream about what you might do.

Your imagination will be stimulated, your curiosity piqued.

A lot of your questions will be answered as you read the story of Bonnie and Michael's adventures. The rest of your questions, about resources and all the specifics, will be answered in the comprehensive resource listing in the back of the book. Everything you ever wanted to know detailed information about what was referred to in the book, and even more.

There are all sorts of things to consider if you want to take off for a year, a few months, a month, a couple of weeks, or even two years. The authors will take you through the process, even providing a planning guide for your convenience. Anticipate challenges the unexpected. You'll learn about the kind of things that could happen in the frank discussion in the text. Upon completion of this reading, you'll be much more ready than you were before especially for international travel.

Added bonus: throughout the book there are quotes from other writings in the field of life-work balance and sabbaticals. These references are enlightening, thought-provoking, and stimulating - to read the other books, too.

Ready to take some time off, to renew? Prepare well; start with this book.
Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way To Personalize Sales And Achieve Astounding Results
Jack Mitchell
Hyperion Books
77 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023
www.HugYourCustomers.com
ISBN 1401300340 $19.95

Peter Hupalo
Reviewer

Hug Your Customers: The Proven Way To Personalize Sales And Achieve Astounding Results by Jack Mitchell is a great book for entrepreneurs who operate service businesses and, especially, for business owners who operate retail operations.

Jack Mitchell is co-owner and CEO of Mitchells/Richards, the upper-end clothing retailer. Today, Mitchells/Richards sells $65 million in apparel annually. Mitchells/Richards dresses many Fortune 500 executives. However, the store began as a modest family business, started by Jack's dad in 1958.

Mitchell writes: "When the store opened, there were a few dozen shirts, some socks, a couple of sweaters, and a few ties. Plus, exactly three Doncaster suits, the brand Dad created for the store, priced at $65 apiece. A size 40 banker's stripe. A 42 navy blue. And a 42 charcoal gray.... Nowadays we stock over three thousand suits - for men and women."

Mitchell credits his family store's success to making the store a home, where customers feel welcome. Mitchell says his parents: "...understood that customers wanted five things more than they wanted a great location or enormous inventory:

1. A friendly greeting

2. Personal interest

3. A business that makes them feel special

4. A 'no problem' attitude

5. Forward thinking"

Mitchell says that to be successful in the service industry, you must build a customer centric organization - one that hugs the customer. It's not enough to have satisfied customers. You need extremely satisfied customers.

Mitchell writes: "When you have strong relationships, customers will do more of their buying from you. They'll refer other customers. They'll communicate with you better and tell you what they like and what they don't like, in turn making your business more efficient and effective."

Mitchell points out that hugging is difficult to quantify, and many companies ignore customer satisfaction and customer profiling altogether. While inventory is recorded on the balance sheet, Mitchell tells us that a company's greatest asset - repeat customers - doesn't appear on any financial statements.

Further, while companies invest significant amounts in computer systems, they rarely develop computer systems that support a hugging culture.

Mitchell writes: "What's amazing is that although personal relationships are absolutely crucial to any company's success, they are rarely tracked by any system. Hotels don't know who likes queen-sized beds and who wants extra pillows. Airlines don't know who prefers aisle seats and who prefers the window."

Mitchell is a big fan of profiling customers to provide more personal service. He likes his sales associates to know which customers like M&M's and what nicknames they prefer.

With over 115,000 customers, knowing personal information about each customer is nearly impossible without a database to support this information. When a customer visits Mitchells/Richards, the customer's sales associate can pull up the customer information easily allowing the associate to recall information about the individual.

Hug Your Customers also contains solid advice about running a family business.

A Humanist in the Bible Belt
William Harwood
lstBooks
1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403
ISBN 141070985X $13.50 www.1stbooks.com.

Norman Pridmore
Reviewer

First published in Freethinker, August 2003.

If something can be clearly thought, then it can be clearly stated. Flannel and gobbledygook (components of what A C Grayling elegantly calls "the perfumed smokescreen") are far too often simply an attempt to conceal the illucidity of a writer's ideas. It is no coincidence that flannel and gobbledygook constitute the essence of theology.

Dr William Harwood will have no truck with vagueness, and this makes his writing consistently stimulating and urgent. He also largely eschews nuance and ornament. His directness is at times almost supercharged. This means that when confronted with a Harwood essay, letter, article or review the reader is able to deal without distraction with what is being said. His latest book, the imposing A Humanist in the Bible Belt, brings together a large number of Harwood pieces that were previously widely scattered and available only in newspapers and periodicals. In addition, readers will find in this volume substantial chunks of his fine (if strange) novel The Autobiography of God (reviewed in the January 2003 Freethinker). In producing this book the publisher 1stBooks has performed a very useful and undoubtedly important service.

This collection has many virtues. However, a word of warning is in order. Because what lies between the covers is such highly concentrated stuff it is perhaps advisable not to imbibe too much at a single sitting lest an overdose ensues. The material is best read, in my experience at least, a few items at a time. This method also reduces one's occasional sense of deja vu. Dr Harwood has a number of favoured pithy phrases that pop up in different places, and to read too many of these too often is sometimes disconcerting. Another virtue of the "little at a time" method is that the best of the points that Dr Harwood does repeat fold more easily into the memory. This is entirely to the good, as they are well worth remembering.

The term "polymath" is frequently misused. In Dr Harwood's' case, it is probably an accurate description. He knows a great many things, and knows about a great many things (there is a difference). In an age of intense specialisation there are very few who can or are prepared to venture with confidence beyond a relatively narrow field of expertise. Dr Harwood is not one of these. The fact that he is not a university academic (though eminently qualified to be one) may have some bearing on this.

He knows the languages of the Bible well enough to have undertaken a scholarly translation of significant portions of it (copiously annotated). He is at home in history, myth, and textual analysis. He is well acquainted (as anyone on the editorial board of that excellent magazine Free Inquiry should be) with modem secular humanist thinking over a wide range of issues. He is a contributing editor of American Rationalist. And he seems to know in mind-bending detail the whole spectrum of kooks and kookiness, from Ayurveda and alien abductions to Zero Point Energy. Oh, and don't get him onto hypnotism. He was an advertising manager for hypnotic stage shows and will tell you very definitely that there's no such thing - not as understood by most folk, anyway. He's right, by the way.

The earliest piece in the book dates from 1974 and concerns the quality of education given to Canada's future teachers. He deprecates the quality of the training they are given, and roundly' castigates the intellectual standard of what is on offer. It is "puerile balderdash" and "unintelligible gibberish," he says. Dr Harwood should know: himself an educator (in the widest sense of that word) he is well placed to make such an assessment.

From this robust beginning, Dr Harwood covers a vast amount of territory. Some readers may find his ideas about sex rather challenging, and any religious persons perusing the book will be appalled at these (and at much else besides). Religion, he believes, has twisted and depraved our normal human impulses to a degree that is not only scarcely believable but certainly unacceptable. A rational ethics, he suggests, would not place an arbitrary boundary around sexual behaviour and impose consequent limits, but would recognise and accept the legitimacy and importance of sexual experimentation and relations between young people (by which he means those presently considered to be below the "age of consent"). Those disturbed by his proposals will probably not be mollified by his carefully delineated scheme for ensuring that exploitation does not take place. In his ideas about sex Dr Harwood gets very close to saying the unsayable. Bravely and consistently, however, he follows the dictum that in the realm of ideas, there should be no holds barred. He ridicules "accepted" notions such as the innate harmfulness of "adultery" too. Unsurprisingly, he is not a fan of the Pope's teachings concerning contraception. His anger is at times palpable.

Nor is he a fan of President George W Bush. Not only does he consider him an illegitimate usurper (he's in the excellent company of Michael Moore and Gore Vidal here) - he also considers him to be one of history's biggest mass murderers. This is based of course upon Bush's record as Governor of Texas, during which time he had power to prevent, but did not prevent, the murder by the state of around 150 fellow humans. (Executions on this scale smack of human sacrifice, surely?).

In reading his analyses of what the Bible actually says (an extraordinary self-imposed task for someone who rates the book as being ethically on a par with Hitler's Mein Kampf and De Sade's Justine), I began to entertain a plausible but mildly disturbing fantasy. Certain pieces in this book would lend themselves to photocopying and to sending at suitable intervals to the professionally religious. For most of the time these paragons of dissimulation go about their ghostly trade unopposed. A few Harwood "anti-tracts" sent in their direction could be just the thing they need to awaken their dormant critical faculties. It would probably be far too optimistic to expect that any would seriously alter their opinions, but any offer of food for thought to the mentally starved would be an act of charity. The confused Rowan Wilson, author of a recent sermon in which he "challenged" secularism to explain and justify itself, might he a worthy recipient of a Harwood sandwich.

When getting to grips with Dr Harwood's biblical interpretations and analyses, I did have something of a problem. It's not that I doubt his competence as a translator or analyst - it's simply that I am not qualified to make any assessment based on the primary sources that he uses.

I fell to wondering as a consequence of this whether his ideas really did stand up to scrutiny. With this in mind I turned to that very useful and subversive book The Unauthorised Version by historian Robin Lane Fox (author of the equally useful Pagans and Christians). I was surprised at the extent to which Fox and Harwood supported each other - if not in detail, then at least in the general tenor of many of their conclusions. Any lingering doubts were removed when I turned to the work of M A Screech, classical scholar, Fellow of the British Academy, Emeritus Fellow of All Souls, Oxford, and, since 1993, Anglican priest. He describes most revealingly how even in the 16th Century the internal inconsistencies and self-contradictions in the Bible were so well known that John Calvin (amongst others) felt obliged to cobble together so-called "harmonies" in order to explain and justify the anomalies - and how they ceased to explain them (surprise, surprise!) as the work of critics became ever more sophisticated. I strongly suspect, as a result of this and a few other careful comparisons, that Dr Harwood is right. I turned also to Dr Harwood's own very impressive Mythology's Last Gods. It was reassuring to discover that where alternative points of view to those Dr Harwood posits are possible, he explicitly recognises the fact in the abundance of footnotes he offers. In this and in many other ways his work is lifted beyond the suspicion of being less than thoroughly scholarly.

Rationalism is not just for Christmas, but for life. In other words, everything is fair game. With this in mind Dr Harwood sets about UFOs, the alien abduction craze (as exemplified in the work of Harvard professor John "The Wack" Mack), and "psychics." He also reflects with pungency on matters like "recovered memory" and "multiple personality disorder" (curiously enough, a little problem that the Christian god seems much affected by).

A little under half the book is composed of a collection of book reviews. This might sound like thin gruel, but in Dr Harwood's hands a review is not simply a review. Instead, it frequently becomes an argument - or an expos‚ of some unfortunate's dismal research or linguistic incapacity. Readers put off by the thought of ploughing through 200 pages of reviews should be assured that all are readable, many are witty, and that in a good number a very entertaining display of fireworks is on offer. Some of his comments may be thought by some to be rude. All I can suggest to those who object is that they should perhaps re-read their Swift and Pope (Alexander. that is - not the fanatical bigot referred to earlier fading slowly away amidst the splendours of the Vatican).

If it is true (which it is) that in the realm of ideas there should be complete freedom of speech, then it is reasonable to insist that all ideas should be subject to criticism. Dr Harwood has no time for those who believe that ignoring the questionable and imbecilic is a sensible or reasonable strategy. This is an important point to remember when the argument is proposed that to debate such and such an idea only "gives it credibility." Dr Harwood rightly will have none of this. He points out several times in various places that the effect of such a refusal is to lend credibility to the fatuous, malicious or devious by giving the (entirely false) impression that their claims cannot he countered. Those who believe, for example, that creationism or holocaust denial will be conquered or that they will somehow lose their power, appeal and influence by ignoring them should pay careful heed.

Dr Harwood's aims are not trivial. He wants to change minds. And he goes about trying to do this in a very thorough way. He offers facts - especially the facts of history. He offers evidence in spades taken from the holy writings of the religious themselves. But he recognises too that, for some minds at least, this is not enough. So he brings in the artillery of logic. Those wanting a flavour of how he does this should take a look at section seven of this book - the one called "Is Religiosity a Form of Unsanity?". It's just one of many sections likely to give the deluded pious a few nasty moments - before they remember and head for that convenient refuge known as the Mystery of God....

And in case anyone is wondering about the use of the word "unsanity," Dr Harwood gives some excellent reasons as to why it might be preferred to the more pejorative "insanity" when discussing religious beliefs. He also makes a good case for adopting the use of "non-theist" as opposed to "atheist," on the grounds of both clarity and strict accuracy.

As I do with any author, I sought hard to disagree with Dr Harwood. Thirty years ago this would have been easy: I would have disagreed quite effortlessly with just about everything he said. Now older and wiser, for me to discover any bones of contention meant some hard digging. I finally found one bone in the form of his antipathy to what is loosely termed "sociobiology." This came as rather a shock. He seems not only dismissive of, but hostile to, many of the ideas of Richard Dawkins and (especially) E O Wilson (the two he mentions by name). Surprisingly he offers little by way of argument in defence of his position. At one time the opinion was widely held that any acceptance of the conclusions of sociobiology must result in the acceptance of the imposition of an illiberal social policy, this being the inevitable result of sociobiology's implicit assertion of strong genetic determinism. This always was something of a straw-man argument, and is one which today simply cannot stand up to scrutiny. Given Dr Harwood's commitment to the reality of the body and his acceptance of a completely non-transcendental naturalism, I would have expected a greater degree of sympathy to the "sociobiology project" - which at its simplest is about asserting the primacy and interconnectedness of the natural world. Perhaps any misunderstanding is mine. I feel sure, anyway, that should he choose to, he could provide a very cogent defence of his position. That said, it is astonishing (given his remarkable productivity) that there is even room for sociobiology on his radar.

The second bone of contention turned out not to be a bone at all. When I first read Dr Harwood's brief article "Is This 1984 - Or What!" I did a double take when I read that 1984 was really about Anglicanism. Dr Harwood writes of "Orwell's fictionalized Anglican religion (disguised as Russian communism) " Whoops - my mistake. It's not about Anglicanism at all, and Dr Harwood knows it. He was making a point about the persistence of "The Big Lie" as propounded by religion - the lie that "religion, specifically Christianity, is on the increase." It's typical of Dr Harwood that he's able to illuminate an issue by drawing on an example that is apparently so remote. After the shock wears off, one realises that the "Big Lie" to which he refers really is thoroughly Orwellian in its insistence that, despite all the evidence, black is white, two and two really do make five, and that there really are two billion Christians in the world.

Inevitably, the experience of reading a collection such as this is ultimately less satisfying than reading a complete work would be. One is often left wanting more, to see how Dr Harwood might develop this or that idea, or to see better how various of his assertions fit together in a larger pattern. Nevertheless, given that Dr Harwood frequently manages to say in just a few pages what many other writers say (or fail to say, as Nietzsche said of his own work) in an entire book, the satisfactions that do remain are very considerable.

The work of William Harwood stands in a great tradition of rationalist writing. His is not, thankfully, a lone voice. But it is without doubt one of the strongest and most individual voices speaking today, and it is one well worth attending to.

Wish Come True
Eileen Goudge
Viking Press
c/o Penguin Putnam, Inc.
375 Hudson St, NYC, 10014
ISBN:0670032166, 384 pp., $24.95, www.penguinputnam.com

Melissa Parcel
Reviewer

Paraplegic and former movie actress Monica Vincent is dead. Her sister, Anna Vincenzi, is arrested for murder. The residents of Carson Springs are shocked--not because of Monica's death; she was a cruel, vindictive woman who played the pity card to manipulate others. Anna's friends are shocked because they don't believe she is capable of such a heinous crime. WISH COME TRUE, the third book in the Carson Springs trilogy, begins with Anna's arrest, then takes the reader back six months to view the events that led up to the murder.

Anna cares for her Alzheimer's-afflicted mother, Betty, as well as assists Monica many hours each day. Monica is an alcoholic and makes Anna's life a living hell. Things finally reach a breaking point, and Anna and her other sister Liz convince Monica to enter rehab. During family week, Anna gets to know Marc, a counselor with troubles of his own. The two grow closer, and over the next few months forge a relationship. Marc joins Anna in the search for Monica's killer. Will they fall in love or just remain close friends? Will they find Monica's true murderer, or will Anna go to jail?

WISH COME TRUE also revisits some favorite characters from Eileen Goudge's previous novels. Finch is on a mission to find out more about her birth family. Laura and Hector proceed with the adoption of a baby. Sam, Claire, Gerry, and many others are also featured. Who is the mysterious woman with the same name as Finch, are they related?

Eileen Goudge has a talent for creating believable characters who overcome obstacles for love. I enjoyed getting to know Anna in the previous two novels in which she was a peripheral character. In WISH COME TRUE, she has a voice and comes to find herself in the midst of the needs of others. Marc is an ideal match for Anna, although he is not without faults. The cracks in his armor are what make him a believable and interesting person. Ms. Goudge writes in such a way that the transitions between past and present flow smoothly. In the end, she paints a seamless picture with a conclusion that even most mystery lovers will not figure out in advance.

One issue that really bothers me about this book is the treatment of the characters from past books. The previous novel, TASTE OF HONEY, featured Gerry finding the daughter, Claire, she had given up for adoption thirty years before. Most of that book is a struggle of choices for Claire--between Gerry and her adoptive parents, between her new love in Carson Springs and her hometown boyfriend. In WISH COME TRUE, it is mentioned almost as an aside that Claire is now married, and that Claire's mother had passed away. I felt cheated that this was only worthy of one sentence when I had grown to know and care for these people.

I hate to see this trilogy end. There are so many more stories to tell in Carson Springs, hopefully Ms. Goudge will revisit it again someday. Although WISH COME TRUE is the third in a series, Ms. Goudge gives the reader enough background that it can stand alone. I recommend reading all three books: STRANGER IN PARADISE, TASTE OF HONEY, and now WISH COME TRUE, to get to know the special people of Carson Springs. The idyllic scenery and warm residents will make you wish to live in this corner of heaven on earth, or at least visit for a little while.

Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest
David M. Rohl
Crown Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 0517703157 $135.00

Maurice A. Williams
Reviewer

Ancient Egyptian names, like Raamses, Tutankhamun, and Nefertiti are familiar to everyone. Egypt is mentioned often in Scripture along with Joseph and Moses. Champollion's deciphering of ancient hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone was the key that opened a storehouse of Egyptian history as the Egyptians themselves experienced it. Scholars were surprised to see very little confirmation of Biblical accounts in the original Egyptian texts. The city and place names, persons and their titles are so different in ancient Egyptian and Hebrew that scholars, with great difficulty, could match only four events to known dates. Based on these four dates, historians tried to intermesh all the other events mentioned in Egyptian history. They then tried to match the dates with events in Biblical history. So little affirmation with Biblical events caused many historians to view the Biblical accounts as myths rather than history. Debates arose challenging the intermeshing of dates. In 1952, Immanuel Velikovsky in his "Ages in Chaos" proposed that Egyptian history is mismatched with biblical history by almost six centuries. He tried to show that some Egyptian history is repeated: that the same pharaohs appear with different names twice in Egyptian history.

Forty-three years later, David Rohl published "Pharaohs and Kings." Rohl, an eminent Egyptologist, spent twenty years examining the basis for the four pillars (or known dates) in Egyptian history. Benefitted by recent archaeological research on a catch of mummified Apis bulls, which were considered the sacred dwelling place of gods by the ancient Egyptians, Rohl and others constructed an unbroken line of dates intermeshing when the bulls were alive with the pharaohs who reigned when the bulls lived.

Rohl also found misdating in Egyptian history, some dynasties being parallel rather than sequential, some being repeated. Of the four "known" pillars, only one is correct. The misdating amounted to several centuries. The reason Biblical events do not match Egyptian events is because of the misdating. Examining a steep rocky cliff housing the Nile where the yearly crests of the river were inscribed and dated with the reign of certain pharaohs, Rohl saw that there were indeed seven years of plenty (because the Nile crested high) and seven years of famine because the Nile crested low, bringing too little water and rich loam into the Nile valley where crops were grown. This happened in 1682-1668 B.C. Rohl was, therefore, able to date when Joseph arrived in Egypt to around 1662 B.C. when Amenenhat III was pharaoh. Amenenhat III empowered Joseph to be magistrate or vizier administering the storage and distribution of grain. Amenenhat III had a palace built for Joseph at Tel-el-Daba, Area F. Rohl found the tomb of Joseph from which the Israelites took Joseph's bones when they fled Egypt. Rohl also found a statue of Joseph at the tomb, but the statue was defaced by angry Egyptians during the Exodus. Finding a solid date for Joseph, Rohl concluded that the Exodus occurred around 1417 or 1450 B.C. when Dudimose was pharaoh.

This intriguing book by David Rohl has many illustrations, photos, and charts that take the reader step-by-step through the evidence as Rohl, himself, sorted out the evidence. Thought written by a highly qualified scientist, the book is very easy to understand and fascinating from cover to cover. A "must read" for anyone interested in ancient Egypt and the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt.

Tribal Bible
Kajira Djoumahna
P.O. Box 14926, Santa Rosa, CA 95402-6926
ISBN 0972848606, $40.00, http://blacksheepbellydance.com

Laura Giles
Reviewer

Webster's dictionary defines "bible" as "any book regarded as authoritative or official." Thus, The Tribal Bible is aptly named. It contains everything that an enthusiast of American Tribal (ATS) style belly dance would ever want.

It appropriately starts at the beginning, telling the story of how this new and unique dance evolved. Personal accounts from people who were there make this an interesting read. You can feel the tension and excitement from both the dance and the dancers. It has all the expected drama of the birth of a new phenomenon.

Djoumahna progresses by exploring the influences that continue its evolution today. She acknowledges the closely associated styles that resemble ATS and respects their position in the dance world, while pointing out their differences. She covers the globe in search of ATS hot spots and contributors to the ongoing creation. It's a fascinating blend of east and west, traditional and modern.

The book goes on to visit costuming, movements, music and more. Peppered throughout the book are practitioners' comments on why they dance, how it has enriched their lives, and their thoughts on a wide variety of dance related subjects. Through these comments, Djoumahna paints a spiritually uplifting picture of womanhood and sisterhood that personifies the whole tribal spirit. While non-dancers may not connect to many explanations of movement or music, this quality expands the audience from dancers to all women interested in connecting with the divine feminine and releasing the goddess within.

The reader will appreciate the abundance of photographs. There are pages of women from all over the world in various costumes and from different places in time. Tattoos, jewelry, make-up, movement, and the beauty of the dancers could not be adequately described without these photos. The photographs alone are worth the price of the book.

Djoumahna's conversational tone makes The Tribal Bible an easy and entertaining read. I applaud the liberal crediting of her sources. It is particularly important in the creation of an authoritative reference book such as this; however, the way in which credit is written sometimes interrupts the flow of the book. I would have preferred footnotes where possible. With all the book has to offer, this is a small thing worth overlooking. I highly recommend this book to Middle Eastern dancers, dancers of other forms, women interested in exploring their inner goddess, collectors of Orientale art, and the curious. The Tribal Bible is a book you will return to again and again for inspiration and wonder.

None of Our Business: Why Business Models Don't Work in Schools
Crystal M. England
Heinemann
361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801-3912
0325004447 $14.00 www.heinemann.com

Kristen Tucker
Reviewer

None of Our Business: Why Business Models Don't Work in Schools by Crystal M. England (a former teacher and administrator and current publications editor for the Wisconsin Association of Middle Level Education) is an honest and at times shocking look at the failure of the factory model in the current system of education. Ms. England denounces the use of high-stakes testing as the sole measure of learning and paints a bleak picture of socio-economic segregation as a result of vouchers for school choice. She points out the faults of the No Child Left Behind Act and the impact that societal changes such as homelessness, poverty, and divorce have had on children who must come to school each day and try to learn. With research and anecdotal evidence that comes from actually being an educator for many years, Ms. England's provides an accurate description of what takes place in the classroom and the enormous needs of students, teachers, and schools that must be addressed by society. This book should be read by anyone looking for reasons that schools are failing, but especially by legislators and policymakers who created the atmosphere of failure, and who hopefully, one day, will be able and willing to fix it.

A Working Stiff's Manifesto
Iain Levison
Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN 0812967941 $11.95 164 pages

John T. Walbaum
Reviewer

The world is full of successful people admonishing their lessers to do as they did, go forth boldly into the unknown and achieve their destinies. Iain Levison isn't buying it. After serial failures as an employee in everything from stevedoring to trawler fishing, he has settled into a state of blissful, hand-to-mouth mediocrity. Short-term employment is his lot in life, and he is okay with that. Besides, for Levison not having any ambitions beyond paying the rent is liberating: It allows him to train his razor-sharp wit on the heartless companies, impossible bosses and inept co-workers that populate the American economic underbelly.

Levison's book, A Working Stiff's Manifesto (Random House, 2003) is billed as "A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember." There are actually far fewer in the book (12, by my count), and his adventures on the "slime line" at two Alaskan crab-packing plants account for about one-third of the slim book. Despite its Marxist-sounding title, this is no screed about economic injustice, and Levison is not a poseur like Barbara Ehrenreich, who did a George Plimpton-style tour of a few low-paying jobs for her best-selling book Nickel and Dimed before pronouncing capitalism broken. This is simply a man in a deep but very funny rut.

You can't always tell how long Levison spends in each stint, but six months would be a long time. Each position offers a new form of physical or psychological torture, though he handles both with aplomb; it's the lack of a steady income he can't stand. Levison frequently blames his major in college for his condition: "...if you advertise for people who have English degrees, you're reaching a great demographic: people who are frustrated and gullible, with a proven track-record for poor decision-making." Levison, however, is far from a typical college graduate. He has, we quickly learn, some issues apart from his education. In short order we find him lying about his background, feeding alcohol to a minor, stealing cable television, talking back to his boss and filching food. Still, Levison is model employee compared to the miscreants he works with, especially in the nearly lawless, no-questions-asked world of Alaskan seafood.

Levison delivers his career lowlights with excruciatingly humorous anecdotes, like blowing the head off a concrete donkey by attempting to fill it with heating oil, discovering naked pictures of the woman whose possessions he is moving across the country, and having tons of spiny perch dumped on him, leaving Levison looking like a "giant red porcupine." One of the best vignettes is not a job at all, but an attempted con to where he is goaded to pay money to be trained to sell water filters. Levison, the ultimate cynic, quickly figures it out: "Ohmygod, they've stocked the audience. This is a sales seminar, and they've put salespeople in the audience to make the meeting go smoothly, like B-girls in a New Orleans dive bar. You can't tell the customers from the employees." If you've ever fallen for one of these scams yourself, you know how accurate this account is.

His jobs are so demeaning, so unfulfilling and pay so poorly that Levison is a world-class stoic if you take the book at face value. But could anyone be this much of a glutton for punishment? There are a number of situations where a little brotherly advice would have come in handy - such as when he starts stuffing Chilean sea bass down his pants at the local market where he works to make up for being mistreated - that might have saved his very thick skin. Yet he accepts his inevitable firings with such detached humor that one can't help but wonder if this book was in the back of his mind all along: a three-martini daydream to help him get through the day.

A Writer's Reference, 5th Edition
Diana Hacker
Bedford/St. Martin's Press
33 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003
ISBN 0312397674, $46.15 US, 2003, xxii + 466

Janis Butler Holm
Reviewer

What can a college textbook offer those outside the classroom? Since its initial publication in 1989, Diana Hacker's A WRITER'S REFERENCE has found a place on many a writer's shelf. The fact that it is the best-selling composition textbook in the U.S. (used by over a million students) has in no way lessened the appeal of this well-designed and user-friendly handbook.

What A WRITER'S REFERENCE offers is a clear and unpretentious guide to standard English--its uses and abuses. Hacker is concise and readable, and the book's tidy, systematic layout pleases the eye. Tabbed dividers make access to topics such as "Word Choice," "Punctuation," and "Mechanics" quick and easy. Each tabbed page includes a menu of the items addressed in that section, organized in outline form. And the coverage is thorough. Rare is the writing predicament that is not addressed within this book's covers.

Particularly helpful is the "glossary of usage" included in the section on word choice. There one can learn when to use "lie" or "lay," "like" or "as," "due to" or "because of." Hacker distinguishes between standard (e.g., "enthusiastic") and dialect (e.g., "enthused") forms and helps the reader sort out sound-alike words (e.g., "sometime," "some time," and "sometimes"). Throughout, she provides explanation in simple, direct language.

Is A WRITER'S REFERENCE worth the price it commands as a best-selling textbook? Yes. Given what this manual offers, most consider it a bargain.

Heartbeat - George Bush in His Own Words
Jim McGrath, ed
Scribner
c/o Simon and Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas, 14th fl., New York, NY 10020
ISBN: 0743224795, $24.00, 224 pages, 1-800-223-2336

Clint Hunter
Reviewer

"Heartbeat" is a collection of excerpts from the speeches and writing of President George H. W. Bush. The compilation delineates those core values that defined the policies and personal goals of Bush's presidency. The book is organized into chapters corresponding to his presidential years (1989-1992) with an additional chapter concentrating on his post-presidency.

The writing which characterize the core values appears in sub-sections in each chapter. These are: Faith, Family, and Friends; The Vision Thing; A Legacy of Service; and In the Arena. This is a convenient organizational tool which allows the reader, should he/she choose, to follow a particular thread through each of the four years of the presidents term. Of course one may choose the conventional method of a chapter by chapter reading. Some may actually do both, occasionally flipping back and forth through the chapters to remind themselves of a particular point previously made.

The book provides absorbing and entertaining reading. Readers who have previously visited the Bush Library in College Station, Texas, will not be surprised by the sense of honor, duty and love of country that permeates the text nor the wonderful rather self-deprecating sense of humor that pops up in sometimes unexpected places.

All-in-all this is an effortless way to get an elementary grasp of the issues and complexities which confronted America at a time when events leading to The World Trade Center atrocity were already continuing to build.

The Ultimate Astrologer
Nicholas Campion
Random House Australia
20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point, SYDNEY NSW 2061 AUSTRALIA
ISBN: 0712610200 $AUD 34.95 http://www.randomhouse.com.au/

Rose Glavas
Reviewer

"A simple guide to calculating and interpreting birth charts for effective application in daily life", is what is says on the cover of this book. I found that this statement, in my opinion, is true.

Nicholas Campion is a well-respected astrologer who has written several other astrology titles - Mundane Astrology: the astrology of nations and organisations (with Michael Baigent and Charles Harvey), The Book of World Horoscopes, The New Astrology: the art and science of the stars (with Steve Eddy), and Zodiac: enhance your life through astrology. He is also an award winning, internationally authority on astrology as well as past President of the Astrological Association of Great Britain and the Astrological Lodge of London.

The author has taught astrology around the world since 1980 and helped to devise the first ever BA course in astrology in the western world. His articles have appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines. Nicholas Campion is also on the web at www.NickCampion.com.

The Ultimate Astrologer is divided into 17 Chapters covering everything from the planets to becoming a professional astrologer. Also included are the necessary tables for calculating a birth chart so that you don't need to go and buy extra books if you want to have a go at working out your own birth chart. The tables provided are aimed for the reader in the UK and USA and include the tables of houses, ephemeris (from 1960 - 2010) and daylight savings times.

From the beginner to the more experienced astrologer, this title has something to offer readers with a wide variety of knowledge. The chapters start off with the basics, such as the meaning of the planets, zodiac signs and houses. It was good to see Chiron included with the other planets/points, since it is a relative newcomer to the astrological scene. There is a comprehensive chapter devoted to calculating a birth chart as well.

For the more experienced reader there are several chapters introducing prediction, relationship charts, horary, electional and financial astrology as well as several other branches of specialised topics that come under astrology

Overall, this is a worthwhile investment for the student of astrology that includes nearly everything you need to draw up a birth chart. While you are exploring astrology this is a perfect book because it will save you from having to buy an ephemeris, book of tables and daylight savings book - in a sense The Ultimate Astrologer pays for itself. That in itself is an achievement! I would recommend this title for the beginner/intermediate astrology student.
Horses By Email
Staci Layne Wilson
Amber Quill Press, LLC
www.amberquill.com
ISBN 1592791247 (electronic) $5.50
ISBN 1592799140 (paperback) $12.50

Franci McMahon
Reviewer

"My name is Melaina," the letter began, "and I live in Norfolk, England. I have two matched dapple ponies, and both are Connemara geldings---I live and breathe horses, and want a key pal who does the same. If you are mad about horses and ponies, email me as soon as possible!"

How could you not?

The cover image of a horse leaping out of a computer screen urged me to ask for this book to review. Horses have been central to my life, as an equestrian and teacher of young riders. I wasn't disappointed. The book is rich in horses, dapple-grays, chestnuts, and bays. Staci Layne Wilson is a competent writer, crafting interesting characters in a believable setting. The novel is suitable for teen/Young Adult with an age range of twelve to eighteen, containing no violence, sex, or alcohol and only a hint of romance. The two fifteen year old girls are Mariana, an experienced horsewoman, and Karen, a horseless dreamer meet across an ocean. Email is an interesting and probable way for two horse crazy girls to meet, exchange information and grow. By the story's exciting and suspense filled conclusion, both girls are eighteen and come together under the most exciting circumstances.

The story line is not predictable and lots of horse information is sprinkled between the pages. At times this information becomes over-teaching, but for the most part readers will devour it. There are many other characters in the novel, a few too many to keep sorted out, both equine and human. They are however, distinct. Colleen, a woman in a wheelchair resulting from a horse related accident, is an interesting player who could have been more developed, internally. Colleen is Karen's mentor, vicariously riding the horse both women love. Sky, a stallion takes Karen to the top of her riding world.

In her next horse adventure, which I will look forward to, I would like to see Ms. Wilson use dialog effectively throughout the book, not just in the last third. Every writer benefits from careful and thoughtful editing. Amber Quill's lack of care let down not only Ms. Wilson, but their own press, as well. There are many missing words, time line problems and basic research could have been better. I will recommend this book and hope that by print press-time many of the problems have been dealt with, as this book deserves.
Long For This World
Michael Byers
Houghton Mifflin
039589171X $24.00 432 pages

Diane Payne
Reviewer

Unlike Byers's first book, a collection of rapid paced realistic short stories titled The Coast of Good Intentions, his first novel travels at a much slower pace. By the time we reach the third chapter, we're finally in Dr. Henry Moss's lab learning necessary details about the fictional medical condition Byers calls the Hickman Syndrome, which resembles the Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (U.S. and French scientists linked a genetic defect to progeria in April 2003, and like the novel, may be on the path for finding drugs to treat this disorder), a genetic disorder that causes young children to deteriorate through the aging process, and most end up dead by heart failure or effects of old age by the time they're nineteen. Byers is such a talented writer one will trod through this tedious beginning about how the parents fell in love at a medical conference and the details about the gymnasium where their daughter plays basketball to follow the author's fascinating story.

Byers's father is a geneticist who specializes with people whose lives are shortened because of their medical conditions, and to some degree, Henry's character is a reflection of Byers' father. Henry is deeply attached to one of his patients who lives in Seattle, a rarity, like the disease. Fourteen-year-old William Durbin has lost all his hair, his head is swollen like an alien, body crumpled, but his mind is sharp, and he loves science and keeping up with the stock market. Henry has a son the same age, Darren, who develops a secret friendship over the phone with William, and never reveals this relationship to his father. Ever. Henry introduces the boys when they visit a planetarium together and the father is constantly feeling plagued by guilt thinking his son feels jealous over the affection he feels for William. Byers's writing is brilliant when he shows these intricate relationships between his characters.

The miraculous medical breakthrough occurs after Henry completes the routine blood work on the family of three-year-old Giles Benhamouda, who is also inflicted with the disease. Henry discovers that Giles' seventeen-year-old brother, Thomas, has the Hickman gene, and is his first asymptomatic positive. Henry marvels over Thomas' incredibly good looks and health and starts conjuring fantasies about patenting a cure for Hickman's, and an even more profitable cure for longevity. Not only does Henry see himself living to be two hundred, but also he foresees a life of wealth and good health. Throughout the book, we hear characters talking about their great success with their dot.com fortunes. Henry jeopardizes his career and bypasses the normal protocol of utilizing mandated research and starts injecting William with Thomas' enzyme, believing it's both William's last chance for survival, and his only chance for personal success.

Watching Henry secretively inject William is compelling because of the nature of their conversations. The parents are always in the background, and they remain in the background. William's father is a high-powered attorney who is Henry's partner with the patent. The conversations with his son usually involve the stock market, whereas the good-natured joking and disturbing discussions regarding death remain between Henry and William. Oddly enough, we know more about the athletic build of William's mother than how she feels as a mother. Thomas, the boy with the wonder gene, is a saucy character who's always worried the doctors aren't telling him something and that he too may die, though he has unnaturally good health. Like William and Darren, Henry's seventeen-year-old daughter Sandra develops a heavy petting relationship with Thomas, much to her father's horror since Thomas has been rather blunt about his past sexual conquerors. Unfortunately, we don't hear much about the Benhamouda family, though they relocated to Seattle to be a part of this experiment, and we rarely see Giles and Thomas together. It's Thomas's embarrassment over his brother's appearance, his coldness toward him that helps readers understand the fragility of the disease and Thomas' vulnerable position. Nothing is said about why Henry doesn't secretly inject Giles since he's much younger and in better health than William. It is Giles's brother, after all, with the miraculous enzyme. Like the disappearance of Giles' importance in this study, Thomas also disappears from the novel when Sandra meets another boy at basketball camp. Thomas is the character that lends this book the realistic, cynical edge. The Moss family keep everything a secret and are too even keyed to make us appreciate the darkness alluded to Henry's nightmares. The family joke about their father's nocturnal gibberish, and he moves to another room so everyone can have a good night's sleep, and that's that, even though the nightmares are mentioned throughout the novel.

At times, the novel seems to be straining to reach a large audience. We have a long series of fart jokes between William and Darren, we hear more than necessary about the Sandra's love life, and we get fairly lengthy descriptions about a neighbor's continuous remodeling projects, which Ilse condemns. Ilse suffers a midlife crisis and gives up her hospital administration job so she can do something more useful for the Asians downtown. After her neighbor buys an expensive Suburban, Ilse buys an old Vespa so she can scoot around town. The more her neighbor remodels, the more Ilse makes trips to Goodwill to decorate her new office. The differences between these women are too obvious, making their conversations tedious and predictable.

Another character who receives an unusual amount of attention is a neighbor who commits suicide. Henry and his teenaged daughter seem to obsess over this death, though no one in the neighborhood really knew this man, including them, and nothing really comes of it. Perhaps it's something that happened in the author's neighborhood, something authentic to him, but it serves as a muddling distraction in the novel. Even though the pace of the book is hampered by the lengthy descriptions, and the audience appeal seemed to grovel for universal and Universal Studio's appeal, the novel will be recognized as another family social novel, one that Oprah would have grabbed for her old book club. It's hard to put the book down because of William's relationship with Henry and Darren, and the allure of the deception and secrets. When Byers is seriously writing, he's seriously intriguing.
The Man from Shenandoah
Marsha Ward
Writers Club Press/iUniverse.com, Inc.
2021 Pine Lake Road, #100, Lincoln, NE 68512
0595263089, $14.95, www.TheManfromShenandoah.com, www.iuniverse.com

Cindy Lynn
Reviewer

Carl Owens thought that his fighting days were over when he made his way home after Appomattox. A solider for the now disbanding Confederate Army, he finds he has very few rights...not even the right to keep the buttons on his uniform, which a group of trouble making Yankee solders cut off of him. When he gets home he finds that one of his brothers is dead, the farm destroyed, and it is only thanks to his mother's quick thinking that they have any food at all. His father decides that he has the perfect plan to solve their woes...sell the farm and move to Colorado, where he is certain that he'll be able to start a prosperous cattle ranch. He gathers others from the area to go with him, a store owner, a blacksmith and their families begin packing for the long trip. He engages two of his sons to girls in the group, as if forming alliances. This would have worked perfectly save for a few things: James, Carl's brother, is in love with someone his father doesn't want him to marry, and so is engaged to Ellen Bates. Ellen knows that she can't replace James's true love in his thoughts, and besides, she's in love with Carl. Carl tries to ignore this attraction, determined to do right by the flirty and beautiful (if manipulative) Ida, but Ellen, who is everything Ida is not, makes it harder just by breathing. One day they stop in town, and Berto Acosta starts to attack the girls in the troupe...only to be stopped by Carl. This chance encounter with Acosta may ruin everything...an outlaw whose taste for blood rivals with his pride and greed, he will stop at nothing to get the Owens family back for this perceived slight.

Whatever happened to good, old fashioned westerns? If you've ever gazed over the shelves wondering this, then Ms. Ward has a definite book for you. It recaptures the simpler, more genteel times that used to be essential to the Hollywood Westerns starring people like Henry Fonda and Gary Cooper. It has all the elements. Most of the characters, especially Carl, are straightforward, hard working people who don't have time for nonsense. They live very hard, unforgiving lives, where a sense of honor, such as Carl has, is not core to just being a decent human, but to survival. Ellen is very sweet...she's also more fit to live the type of life Carl is planning, because she isn't a town girl, she's a woman who knows about things like caring for wounds and child birth and caring for animals. This makes Ellen a more logical choice, and also her sort of wistful long distance affection for Carl makes the reader root for her all the more. This is particularly true when we meet Ida, whose manipulative, but strangely naive way of dealing with Carl, not to mention her clueless nature, shows how miserable both she and Carl would be if they married.

The setting is very well done, capturing the flavor of pioneering. The many setbacks the group have, including one where the very cattle meant to sustain them are killed by an unexpectedly bad winter, make the triumphs they share all the more uplifting. This book is a pleasant journey indeed.

Across The Plains In The Donner Party
Karen Zeinert
Synergebooks
www.synergebooks.com, synergebooks@aol.com
$5.00 EBook

Michael Bogert
Reviewer

Across the Plains in the Donner Party is a true account of the trials and tragedies several families faced on the trek to California. The Donner family and others began the journey in 1846 to find good land and better weather conditions in California, which at the time was still under Mexican authority. Using the diaries and notes from those who endured the hardships, Karen Zeinert has compiled a comprehensive account of what exactly happened during the long months in the wild, and raises old questions that are still being debated today.

I found Across the Plains a very detailed and accurate book. Karen has done her homework in research for this book, including some exciting photographs and artwork from the time. The story will pull you in; especially considering the events actually took place. One can truly appreciate modern travel and conveniences after reading about these brave people.

For those who enjoy tales of yesterday, I would recommend this book. In fact, I believe anyone who loves stories (especially true stories) to read Across the Plains. Great job!

Westering Home
Audrey McClellan
Beaver's Pond Press
7104 Ohms Lane, Suite 216, Edina, MN 55439
www.BeaversPondPress.com
1592980147 $17.95 1-952-829-8818

Robert O. Barclay
Reviewer

Westering Home is a standard genre romance novel. Jean, the heroine, has run away from a philandering husband. She shows up on a remote island off the coast of Scotland in the Middle Hebrides called Eileen Dubh. Here she meets and falls in love with Darroch Mac an Righ, a popular local actor and laird of the island. Jean comes from Milwaukee. Her husband Russ has been very successful in the computer business, and has provided well for his wife and children. Up to now, she sees her life as almost idyllic; but when her husband admits to an affair then tells her it is one of many affairs, she takes off to the other side of the world to try and sort things out.

This could have turned out to be one of those soppy romantic romps, where a couple of rich spoiled characters climb all over each other and have wild frenzied sex whenever the mood strikes them. Not generally my sort of reading. But it isn't like that. In fact, the writing is sharp and punchy, the characters are well drawn, the story is interesting and engaging and the author has done a marvelous job of adding a special insight and depth mixing in Scottish history and culture, and lacing the plot with powerful details of a world where tradition and fidelity mean everything.

The supporting characters are smart and talented, multi-layered, with complicated lives of their own and that complexity helps to make this work highly believable. There were a couple of areas that personally bothered me, but I wouldn't be doing my job as reviewer, I wouldn't be able to hold on to my professional objectivity, if I were to allow those silly foibles to cloud my judgement.

No book is perfect. But this certainly qualifies as one of those that comes close. I have to admit this is not the sort of book that I would normally pick up to read, but it only took me a few pages before I was hooked. There are enough twists and turns to keep the reader constantly off guard, and I felt a genuine urgency to read one more chapter and then another before I could finally set the book aside for the evening. Congratulations to the author for creating the kind of characters and setting that make me care. In the past, I have used stars as a measure of excellence. Generally, four stars is as high as I'm willing to go, but Westering House has made me feel very generous. I don't know if it rates a perfect five, but it definitely warrants high praise, two thumbs up, grade A, first rate. Whatever your particular likes or dislikes in fiction, Westering House is a novel that is well worth checking out.

Enjoy.


Vicki's Bookshelf

Robin Hood
Paul Crestwick
N.C. Wyeth, illustrator
Antheneum Books for Young Readers
c/o Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY 10020
ISBN 0689854676 $18.95 www.SimonSaysKids.com

Those men in tights are back in this slick reissue of the "Scribner Storybook Classic: Robin Hood." The new edition the tall tales of Robin Hood, Little John Friar Tuck, Will Scarlett, Maid Marian and the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, based on the vintage Paul Creswick retelling. The story also draws on the rich lore surroundint the beloved outlaw as he takes to Sherwood Forest and begins his campaign to free the English people from tyranny and oppression. The book's crowning achievement is the beautifully reproduced artwork by the prolific illustrator N.C. Wyeth. The book contains just 11 paintings in all, but each is a masterpiece, particularly a scarlet beauty of Marian flirting with "Robin o' th' Hood." Abridged for younger readers, this is the fourth addition to the Scribner Storybook Classics line, joining "The Last of The Mohicans," "Treasure Island" and "Robinson Crusoe" in fine form.

Where Wild Horses Run Free
Joy Cowley
Layne Johnson, illustrator
Boyds Mills Press
815 Church St., Honesdale, Penn. 18431
ISBN 1590780620 $15.95, www.boydsmillspress

Subtitled "A Dream for the American Mustang," Joy Cowley's newest picture book is a romantic ode to the last of the wild mustangs, and their struggle to survive. Specifically, "Where Wild Horses Run Free" is a tipping-of-the-hat to Dayton O. Hyde, an American rancher who established the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary of South Dakota, where wild horse continues to run thanks largely to his efforts. "Once the wild horse ran free, across the open plains," begins the book's somber narration. "But then the settlers came. They built fences that divided the land and the horses had nowhere to go." Squeezed out of their last natural habitat, the beleaguered horses were relocated to overcrowded corrals much like Native American tribes were thrust into undesirable reservations; a poignant parallel the story seems unaware of and are repeatedly cast aside as "useless animals." The story doesn't do much to dispel that repeated thought, unfortunately, creating a less-than-satisfying conclusion.

Bus-A-Saurus Bop
Diane Z. Shore
David Clark, illustrator
Bloomsbury
175 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10010
ISBN 1582348502 $15.95, www.bloomsbury.com/usa/childrens

All aboard the silliest school bus of all time. "Bus-A-Saurus Bop" is a wild ride of a picture book, told in singsong verse that virtually screams to be read aloud. Its rhythms and rhymes delightfully invite readers to c-r-e-e-e-k and s-q-e-e-e-k along, and to stomp their feet as the story's kids "STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!" up the steps of the monstrously alive bus-a-saurus. Uh, rather, up the tongue of the bus-a-saurus, right past the teeth and bulging eyes/headlights, and into the stomach. The bus-a-saurus keeps a-truckin' along its route, to chomp-chomp-chomp up kids one by one. Once his tummy's full of school-bound kids, he pulls up to their destination and burps 'em out. Despite or because of its gross-out factor, "Bus-A-Saurus-Bop" is all fun and games, a terrific read-aloud sure to put grins on the faces of pre-readers. Parents and caregivers will find it a nice choice for young children suffering the back-to-school blues.

The Nine Lives of Aristotle
Dick King-Smith
Bob Graham, illustrator
Candlewick Press
2067 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140
ISBN 0763622605 $14.99, www.candlewick.com

The immensely-popular author of such children's books as "Babe: The Gallant Pig" and "Lady Lollipop" has come up with a light little tale for younger readers, as sweet and innocent as its tiny, fluff ball of a protagonist. Aristotle is an adventurous kitten who is adopted by a kindly witch, Bella Donna, who always seems to be around when the kitty gets into a mess. Not a day seems to pass without curious Aristotle getting into one mishap or another. He tumbles down a chimney, is chased by a train, and nearly drowns in a pitcher of milk one day and in a stream the next. But Bella Donna is always there in a flash, helping him escape unscathed and letting Aristotle know that his nine-lives countdown is fast diminishing. The simple text and plot is surprisingly elementary, giving one the impression that it was written as a lark between more substantial projects. Still, it's a pleasant chapter book for self-readers and, thanks to Bob Graham's delightful pen-and-ink sketches on every spread, a fun and enjoyable romp.

The DK Children's World Atlas
Editor Consultant: Dr. David Green
Simon Adams, Mary Atkinson & Sarah Phillips
DK Publishing
375 Hudson St., NY, NY, 10014
ISBN 0789492768 $24.99, www.dk.com

"The DK Children's World Atlas" does a wonderful job introducing young readers to the many different societies, cultures, histories and landscapes of our changing world. Geared expressly for children age 8 and up, the lavishly illustrated book provides hundreds of photographs, illustrations and diagrams, making this more extensive a reference than a simple atlas. Vivid, fact-filled descriptions focus on key social, cultural, historical and climatic features of countries and continents. Fact boxes and information-packed captions reveal each country's cultural traditions, while large full-color maps reveal detailed physical geometry. These maps, naturally enough, are the book's primary focus. There are more than 50 large-scale maps in all, each generated from satellite photography; the result clearly shows each nation's major rivers, lakes, mountains, and cities. The arresting visuals make this a fascinating book for browsing, while a comprehensive gazetteer and index make information retrieval simple.

Moominvalley in November
Tove Jansson, translated by Kingsley Hart
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
19 Union Square West, NY, NY 10003
ISBN 0374350132 $17.00, www.fsgbooks.com

Tove Jansson's magical 1940s novels about a family of trolls had a bigger influence my early childhood than any other children's books --- more fantastic than "Alice In Wonderland," more compelling than "Charlotte's Web," and more mysterious than Nancy Drew. Yet the Moomin family of creatures became faded memories as I grew older and the worn books were retired from library shelves. Were they aliens? Elves? Only a vague recollection of their fascinatingly quaint, alternate-universe remained. Thankfully, decades later, Farrar, Straus and Giroux began reissuing the Finnish books starting in 1989 and now FSG completes the series republication with the final chapter saga of the Moomin family, "Moominvalley in November." Funny enough, the 1971 book (poetically translated into English by Kingsley Hart) only features a glimpse Moomin family themselves, though it does take place at their house. That's where familiar secondary characters converge Snufkin, the Hemulen, Fillyjonk and other musically exotic names -- seeking out the Moomins, only to find them missing. Like them, I found myself nostalgically missing my old literary friends for years, and am thankful to be reunited with them again.

How I Became A Pirate
Melinda Long
David Shannon, illustrator
Harcourt Inc.
525 B Street, San Diego, CA 92101
15 E. 26th St., NY, NY 10010
ISBN 0152018484 $16.00, www.HarcourtBooks.com

Shiver me timbers! Little landlubbers around the world have been waiting for a picture book like "How I Became A Pirate." In this terrific new picture book by Melinda Long ("Hiccup Snickup" and "When Papa Snores") and illustrated by the irrepressible David Shannon ("No, David!" and "The Ballad of the Pirate Queens"), young Jeremy Jacob is innocently minding his own business building sand castles at the beach, when a ship of jolly pirates admire his digging skills, so enlist him to join the crew to bury a treasure chest. Soon Jeremy has learned how to sing sea chanteys and "talk pirate," and decides to teach them a little something too: how to play soccer until a shark eats the ball. Except for swabbing the decks, our little hero decides it's the pirate life for him because "no one tells pirates to go to bed, to take a bath, or to brush their teeth. (Maybe that's why their teeth are green.)." There's no spinach or carrots either, so its no wonder he wants to be a pirate forever. Until, that is, he discovers that at bedtime there' s no tucking in, kissing or story. Curses! How can Jeremy escape his pirate clan and get home again? The satisfying conclusion winds up a thoroughly fun adventure, cleverly told from a kids-point of view. And when it comes to all the bells and whistles of pirate legend, Long and Shannon don't miss a thing here: all the catch phrases are strewn about with wild abandon, as are parrots, Jolly Rogers, eye-patches, hooks for hands, and all the other fantasy elements of a swashbuckling good time.

Bicycle Madness
Jane Kurtz
Beth Peck, illustrator
Henry Holt & Co.
115 W. 18th St., NY, NY 10011
ISBN 080506981X $15.95, www.henry.holt.com

Set in the late 1880's "Bicycle Madness" tells a personal come-of-age tale set against the backdrop of American women's history. In Jane Kurtz's ("I'm Sorry, Almira Ann") latest middle-grade novel, its young protagonist, Lillie, is experiencing a difficult year. She is still struggling with her mother's recent death, and now her father has uprooted the family by moving them to the other side of town. But when Lillie's new neighbor decides to learn how to ride a bicycle, Lille finds promising change all around her. Although her father disapproves of their modern neighbor, Lillie and the neighbor become fast friends. Not only does she teach Lillie about such newfangled inventions as the bicycle, but also about the struggle for women' s rights, child-labor laws and better conditions for American workers. Together the two take on the challenges a bike, a spelling bee and social politics and find the will to meet them head-on. "Bicycle Madness" is a compelling historical novel that will do wonders to put pivotal social history into context for young readers age 8 through 12.

My Pony
Susan Jeffers
Hyperion
114 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10011-5690
ISBN 0786819952 $15.99, www.hyperionchildrensbooks.com

In the first picture book illustrated and written by Caldecott honoree Susan Jeffers ("Three Jovial Huntsmen"), she ponders the imaginings of a young girl who wants a horse more than anything in the world. "My Pony" takes readers inside the bedtime dreams of a girl who like thousands and thousands of other just like her longs for the companionship of her very own horse. For practical reasons, her parents explain that owning a horse is simply not possible, so the story's nameless protagonist contents herself with fantasies of riding, and even flying, on the back of a dappled gray mare named Silver. Jeffers' realistic illustrations beautifully capture each scenario, but never quite manage to make the minimal text's emotions soar. Readers will find it easy to relate to the protagonist's desires, but difficult to connect personally to the spare story. More engaging storytelling could have provided the key to Jeffers timelessly appealing idea.

Eleanor, Ellatony, Ellencake, and Me
C.M. Rubin
Christopher Fowler, illustrator
McGraw-Hill Children's Publishing
8787 Orion Place, Columbus, Ohio 43240-4027
ISBN 1577684125 $14.95, www.Mhkids.com

Shirley Ellis' hit song "The Name Game" comes to mind while reading this rollicking new picture book. See, little Eleanor has a problem. Everyone in her family has a different nickname for her and insists that's how she be known. There's "Ellatony," mom's "little elbow mararoni," "Eleanora" for the superstar with so much "mora," "Elle" for short, and "E" for even shorter. All the inventive name-calling is driving Eleanor up the wall. She tries on each name like a hat, imagining herself adopting the different personas, but, naturally, each one is a disastrous flop. When she gets up the nerve to tackle the problem, she rings up her Great Aunt Bertie "who changed her name when she was thirty. She says she's glad because she had the longest name she's ever seen: Begonia Eucalyptus Rose Tulip Iris Evergreen." Cute? Sure, but also an unfortunate example of the book's sometimes-wonky rhyming scheme. Most of the ample rhyming text is right on the money, however, and the tender subject of unwanted nicknames should be a popular subject for many young readers.

Alice In Pop-Up Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
J. Otto Seibold, illustrator
Orchard Books
c/o Scholastic
557 Broadway, NY, NY 10012-3999
ISBN 043941184X $19.95, www.scholastic.com

Alice's mind-bending adventures become even more hallucinogenic with this novelty adaptation by illustrator J. Otto Seibold. The artist's wild style is employed here in full-effect to illustrate six scenes from the classic "Alice In Wonderland": Alice's decent into the rabbit hole; meeting the caterpillar; the Duchess and the pig-baby; the Mad Hatter's tea party; the Queen's croquet game; and the courtroom verdict. Characterized by boldly disfigured characters, we've seen Seibold's visual, satirical slant before when he gave a similar pop-modern twist to such iconic figures as Santa's reindeer (Olive: The Other Reindeer") and classic forest elves ("Gluey: A Snail's Tale"). This time, however, he sticks with the original "Allice In Wonderland" text by Lewis Carroll, condensing it drastically to just six spreads. It gives a postcard view of the great work, of course, dispensing with cohesive storytelling to concentrate instead on the sheer novelty of creating a handful of pop-up paper construction pieces, lift-the-flaps, pull-tabs and a cacophony of hand-lettered text fragments. It's a dizzying and discordant mix that oftentimes confounds. The pop-ups in particular are a disappointment, leaving viewers wanting for more complex designs and, frankly, for more structurally-sound constructions that work as they should upon each page turn. The timing of the release couldn't have been worse, coming just one month ahead of the exceptional "Alice's Adventure's In Wonderland" (Little Simon/Simon & Schuster 0-689-84743-2) by Robert Sabuda, the best pop-art artist in the business.

Late For School
Mike Reiss
Michael Austin, illustrator
Peachtree Publishers
1700 Chattahoochee Ave., Atlanta, GA 30318-2112
ISBN 1561451460 $16.95, www.peachtree-online.com

Smitty is having a really, really bad morning in this rollicking story by "The Simpson's" screenwriter Mike Reiss in his picture book debut. See, Smitty's just a normal kid who's never late for school, but on this ill-fated day his shoes suddenly stick like glue in a sea of thick, black tar. Then the sky rains snowmen on the crowded city streets. And if that's not enough, he's swallowed by a whale, attacked by a Martian, and chased by a hungry T-Rex. Vividly imaginative, the surreal scenarios of "Late For School" strike just the right chord with children age 4 through 8, and give caregivers plenty to laugh at too. Kids will love the lively, rhyming language, the ridiculous plot escalation of calamites, and the funny, exaggerated illustrations by Michael Austin ("13 Monsters Who Show Be Avoided"). One caution: be prepared for kids newly-armed with a wealth of new tardiness excuses.

How Can You Say That?
Amy Lynch with Dr. Linda Ashford
Pleasant Company
8400 Fairway Place, Middleton, Wisconsin 53562
ISBN 1584857706 $12.95, www.americangirl.com

Words are the most powerful weapons on earth: they can hurt or heal. "How Can You Say That?: What To Say To You Daughter When One Of You Just Said Something Awful" is a parenting guide that attempts to provide the right words to improve communication between parents and their adolescent daughters. Written by the founding editor of "Daughters" newsletter, and a psychologist on the pediatrics faculty at Vanderbilt University, this straightforward guide explores scenarios in which harsh words are said, and provides real-life advice to ease communication, promote forgiveness and build healthy parent-daughter relationships. Numerous scenes are clearly presented on each topic, and a number of articulate responses are provided to send parents on the right path. Recommended for parents of girls age 8 through 14.

The Sisters Club
Megan McDonald
Pleasant Company
8400 Fairway Place, Middleton, Wisconsin 53562
ISBN 158485782X $12.95, www.americangirl.com

From the best-selling author of the Judy Moody books, comes a hilarious, heartwarming story of three memorable sisters. Stevie, Alex and Joey are "The Sisters Club," a top-secret trio who stick together to survive the Tuna Noodle Fiasco, kissing rules, and daily life in a family of eccentric actors. Like all sisters, sometimes they agree, sometimes they don't, but no matter what, they're friends to the end. Megan McDonald (who also releases her new "Judy Moody Predicts The Future Book" this season, published by Candlewick Press) has a flair for honest girl-speak, and is a whiz at creating scenes both entertaining and touching. She creatively chooses to alter the story's point-of-view to reflect the internal thoughts and anxieties of all three sisters, through journal entries, dialogue snatches, poems, homework assignments and rough sketches. It maintains the slap-stick pace beautifully and makes "The Sisters Club" a breezy read and a solid launching pad for a new series.

Gregor The Overlander
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press
557 Broadway, NY, NY 10012-3999
ISBN 0439435366 $16.95, www.scholastic.com

When eleven-year-old Gregor follows his little sister, Boots, through a grate in the laundry room of their New York apartment building, he hurtles after her into the dark Underland beneath the city. In this parallel universe humans coexist uneasily with giant spiders, rats, bats and cockroaches but soon the fragile peace is about to shatter. Against his will, Gregor is drawn into the conflict between these creepy creatures. He just wants to get back home, until he learns that he might find his missing father if he goes along with a strange prophecy that names him as a future leader of the Underland. Gregor begins his dangerous quest with only his wits, an old hard hat, and a dusty can of root beer. The journey ahead will change him and Underland forever. First time novelist Suzanne Collins does a lovely job creating and sustaining suspense in this middle grade fantasy. Like many classic fantasies before it, "Gregor The Overlander" takes place in a harrowing alternate world located in our own backyard, making the drama all the more exciting and believable. The first in a new fantasy trilogy, perhaps? Let's hope so.

Little Vampire Does Kung Fu!
Joann Sfar
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
1230 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY 10020
ISBN 0689857691 $12.95, www.SimonSaysKids.com

So this is why they call them graphic novels. On just the first page of this sequel to "Little Vampire Goes To School," the widow-peaked little "hero" rants about flies on poop, his dead parents, taking his pants off in front of a girl, and responding to bullies by taking "a shotgun and kill(ing) every last one of them!" Bedtime reading this is not. Does the publisher really feel this is suitable for elementary school kids age"10 and up" as their recommendation says? Then something must be lost in the translation of this French comic book, particularly post-Columbine. Sure graphic novels are a tough breed, filled with sex, drugs and violence that Archie and his gang never experienced. But when the story premise is about seeking revenge through violent means, maybe it's not kid stuff anymore, and shouldn't be misguidedly packaged in the standard picture book format.

I.Q. Goes To The Library
Mary Ann Fraser
Walker & Co.
435 Hudson St., NY, NY 10014
ISBN 0802788777 $15.95, www.walkerbooks.com

The American Library Association has declared September "Library Card Sign-Up Month," making it perfect timing that I.Q. the mouse returns in a picture book story "I.Q. Goes To The Library." In this sequel to the delightful "I.Q. Goes To School" picture book, the smart rodent sinks his teeth into a few good books. In his first visit to the library, he discovers, in fact, that books are not the only treasures there. During Library Week he joins his human classmates for a Reading Corner presentation that made him "laugh until his eyes watered and his tail curled." After further exploration he discovered books of all kinds, of course. But to his surprise there were also rows and rows of videos, CDs, DVDs, audiocassettes, magazines, puppets and newspapers. Only one thing was preventing I.Q. from checking out all the wonderful items available to borrow: a library card. What's a little mouse to do? In his marvelously inventive way, I.Q. meets the challenge, encouraging young readers to do the same. "I.Q. Goes To The Library" is a delightful addition to what appears to be a growing series.

Vicki Arkoff
Reviewer


Sullivan's Bookshelf

Anything Goes Notes on My Inadequate Life and Yours
Roger Rosenblatt
Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN # 0151008663 $l8.00

This is a book of snappy essays. They're all brief, funny, and/or think pieces. Some are only a sentence long; others are half a page; and the longest are merely a few pages. The whole book can easily be read in a couple of brief sittings. And after dipping into it, you'll come away feeling like you've had a pleasant time.

An example of the foregoing: In an essay entitled "Twenty Things One Would Like to See in Movies 1. The Amish family is extremely nasty and abusive., 2. The African-American cop is not the first one killed., 3. No dances, no wolves., 4. The central male figure is not an architect., 5. No one says: 'Get our butt in here (or out of here)., 6. The serial killer leaves no clues, does not get in touch with the pursuing detective, and does not want to be caught., 7. We enter a black inner-city neighborhood and no boom box is playing rap...," and much more.

Rosenblatt is a writing professor at Long Island University. Besides having written several books, the author is a regular guest essayist on THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER presented on PBS television. The author lives in New York.

Recommended.

A Round-heeled Woman My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance
Jane Juska
Villard
ISBN # 1400060117 $23.95

Juska is a gentle, refined, single woman in her upper sixties. Thanks to years of therapy, she knows what she wants and has the gumption and courage to go after it, regardless of the consequencs or what others might think.

Being human, of course, she had moments of doubt, but then who doesn't? Mostly, she remained resolved in her decision. Specifically, she opted to advertise for a male sexual partner. As a well-read person, she placed her ad in a literary periodical. Juska wanted a man to not only be her lover but to love books as well. And she was partial to those who enjoyed the novelist Anthony Trollope, or at least knew who he was.

Her 'sex ad' netted, amazingly, over 60 responses. Most of the men were totally unsuitable. But several sounded interessting enough to meet, and so she wrote back to them.

That took real guts bcause it brought condemnation, not from any of those men, but from family and friends, though she had a few supporters. This follow-up correspondence, even after she told the men some of her not-so-glamorous personal details, brought further reply.

To meet potential lovers found through her want ad, she had to travel across the U.S. Careful to arrange liaisons in public places, usually during daylight hours, she found soom of these male respondents rich, well educated, suave, urbane, erudite, and others rude,poor, crude, two-timing, and lying. As to their ages, most were older, some close to her age, and one, who worked out quite nicely, was half her age. Sexually capable, many were sophisticated in the art of love. She came to really like, perhaps to adore, a few of these men.

"A few months ago," writes the author, "I turned sixty-seven. My hair is mostly white, with glints of what once was blond, brown, gray; my face is lined--with wisdom, ahem; my eyes--blue as ever they were--are bifocaled. My teeth, not as sparkling as they used to be, remain American sturdy, straight and made to last. Signs of age notwithstanding, dressed--with all my clothes on--I look pretty good. Undressed is a different matter: my body is not twenty-five or forty-five; it's not even fifty-five; and, because it has never been interferred with by plastic surgery, what once was firm is loose, what once went up goes down. Intimations of mortality are all about. [....]"

This memoir is hard to put down. It's not obscene, yet it is titillating, engaging, poignant, and funny.

Recommended!

Jim Sullivan
Reviewer


Stephanie's Bookshelf

Watchers: The Coming of the King
William Meikle
Black Death Books
PO Box 588, Effort, PA 18330
http://www.khpindustries.com/
ISBN: 0967922046 $16.00

The year was 1649. Charles Stuart, the King of both England and Scotland sat in his cell waiting to be executed, not for being the King, but also for being the Vampire other known as The Blood King. At dawn, he was put to horrible death by stake.

Almost 100 years later, rumor has it that a new Blood King, a young Charles Stuart, is on his way to claim his throne, but first he must go through what William refers to as 'Watchers", those chosen to stand guard on 'Hadrian's Wall', for the day the new Blood King emerged. Unfortunately, the Watchers have been waiting so long for this feared Blood King, that they are out of practice and unprepared for his arrival.

A strange visitor from the North by the name of Campbell comes to Milecastle with his bitten yet oddly unturned daughter, Mary, who is wanted by The Blood King, and news that the Blood King is coming along with an army of blood suckers and mortal men. Shawn, one of the Watchers, takes Mary on a journey to a healer, becoming smitten with the young blue-eyed girl. Mary remains in her own little world, quiet, still and starring. When she does speak, it is in a dream Shawn has, only it wasn't her voice, but the voice of the evil that desires her.

Campbell accompanies another Watcher, Martin, over Hadrian's Wall to spy on The Blood King's army and find out what horrors they have in store for England. During this time, they meet with a magical woodsman, who gives them insight on what lies ahead and saves the life of Martin.

When The Blood King finally comes to England, his need for Mary Campbell seems to be much more important than his throne. She could be the one who was chosen to keep the bloodline thriving.

The interesting twist of Vampire romance intertwined with historic battles makes William Meikel's book an absolute masterpiece. This is a lot coming from me, I'm not the historic battle type of person, but this book had pizzazz, wonderful characters and an array of gory moments. I also liked the way William used dreams to explain some points in the book. It gave it a magical and whimsical feel, although some of the dreams were what I would classify as nightmares. The ending leaves you dieing to dig into the next book in the series, 'The Battle for the Throne'.

'Watchers: The Coming of the King', has proved to be a book for any horror lover, no matter the time or place in which the book takes place. Being part Scottish myself, it was nice to see a familiar a favorite creature of mine from the horror genre brought to life in such a terrifically different type of Vampire tale.

Black Moon Rising
Damien Ashton
Publish America
P.O. Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705
www.publishamerica.com
ISBN: 1592862578 $16.95 (240) 529-1031

'Black Moon Rising' is your not-so-basic werewolf tale which includes all of the great horror elements: blood, sex, more blood, drugs, even more blood and college youth at their finest. I loved it! Damien Ashton is not an author for the timid, that's for sure.

He reaches out to today's horror fans with a clever, grotesque story about your bad boy, gone even worse, Chris Jansen, a college student and resident of Sheridan Heights, who is known for his rudeness and his yearly shit-bomb escapades which take place on the porch of old man Willard's house. This year was like any other. Sheriff Daren Griggs once again got the familiar call from old man Willard who had again been tricked by Chris and his friends, except this year, he threatens to kill whoever was responsible.

Unaware that Mr. Willard had his number, Chris and his best friend, Kevin Sheppard take their girlfriends out to a secluded cabin for the weekend, hoping to relax and have a good time, but they barley make it through their first night alive. Chris is violently attacked by a strange, wild beast and rushed to a nearby hospital.

Back in Sheridan Heights, Sheriff Griggs and his men discover a body of a local resident in the woods, a body barley recognizable because it had been torn limb from limb and left half devoured by whatever had killed it. When Kevin calls the Sheriff and tells him about Chris' misfortune, he rushes up to the hospital and realizes that whatever it was that killed the gentleman in the woods had also attacked Chris. The question was, how did it get from point A to point B in such a short time?

The next day, Chris is released from the hospital, his ghastly wounds healing magically over night. When he thinks life is some-what back to normal, he is plagued by dreams, horrible, gut wrenching dreams that are placed upon him by the creature that had assaulted him. The creature was not happy, not at all about the fact that he had escaped and was now like him. Chris didn't deserve the gift that the animal had unintentionally bestowed upon him. Now it was up to the werewolf to hunt him down and destroy his mistake as well as his friend who had saved him.

Chris ends up staying at Kevin's house, his dreams getting worse and sometimes causing him to black out. While he is at Kevin's, Mr. Willard camps out at his house waiting for him to return so he can get revenge for the years of torment he had been subjected to. He had lost his marbles, gone crazy, killed his wife and hungered for Chris' death. To his surprise, the police stop by to question Chris and end up in a shoot out with old man Willard.

"The whole town has gone crazy!" Sheriff Griggs says at one point in the book, and indeed it had.

They had 4 deaths, a shitty porch and what they thought to be a rabid bear who had gone insane and craved human flesh, as Ashton comically describes it.

Racking his brain and searching for anything remotely like the creature that stalked Sheridan Heights, Sheriff Griggs stumbles upon a Website containing information about a similar creature in another part of the country. When the deformed webmaster of the site gets an e-mail from the Sheriff explaining what had been going on, he rushes to Sheridan Heights to destroy the creature, the same kind of creature that had ruined him and killed his family when he was a young boy, ending up caught in the middle of a face off between the Werewolf, Kevin, the Sheriff and a new addition to the Werewolf family, Chris Jenson.

Damien Ashton describes his characters with a clever pen and the tragic deaths of the victims with bloody ink. 'Black Moon' rising is a viscous book with a tight story line and a fresh perspective which will catch the eye of both werewolf fans and those who have recently discovered the horror genre. Damien's writing style is blunt, vulgar and at times will make you bust out into laughter, all together leaving you gutted at the end. Oh, and did I mention that it was bloody?

Stephanie Simpson-Woods
Reviewer


Rick's Bookshelf

Curt Swan: A Life in Comics
Eddy Zeno
Vanguard Productions
59-A Philhower Rd. Lebanon N.J. 08833
www.creativemix.com/vanguard
Hardcover - ISBN # 1887591379 $34.95
Limited Edition Deluxe S/N Hardcover - ISBN # 1887591451 $49.95
Trade Paperback Edition - ISBN # 1887591400 $19.95 (Copy Reviewed)

If I ask you to picture Superman, what image comes to mind? To most, I'm sure it is Christopher Reeve, star of four movies in the 70's and 80's. To others, George Reeves (no relation) who played him in the 1950's TV series; or maybe even Kirk Alyn from the early movie serials, Dean Cain from Lois and Clark, or any of the numerous animated versions stretching from the Fleischer cartoons in the 40's up to The Justice League currently airing on Cartoon Network. However, for me, it is, and always will be, the image of the Man of Steel from the comics, and that of the one artist whose interpretation will always be the definitive version for many fans-Curt Swan.

Curt Swan: A Life in Comics by Eddy Zeno is a beautifully packaged tribute to not only the artist who drew Superman and his many assorted cast of characters for over 30 years in a parade of different titles, but the man behind the pencil as well.

We follow him from his early days in the Army working for Stars and Stripes as a staff cartoonist during World War 2, through his burgeoning career working on different characters for National Periodical Publications (later to become DC Comics) and on to his several decades long stint on Superman and related characters, to his eventual semi-retirement and passing. As a testament to the talent of one of the most respected artists in the business, this book has been crafted with love and respect for the man and his ability, and it shows on each page and with each illustration.

And what illustrations they are! If you have ever read a DC comic, even if has been more years than you would care to admit, you'll be surprised of the memories that will coming flooding back with each page turned. Don't be surprised if you find yourself transported back to the days of comics sold at drug stories and Mom and Pop grocery stores all over the country, not just at specialty shops. When they were meant to be rolled up and stuffed in your back pocket, not put into a plastic bag with a backing board and taped shut, never to be opened again. Page after page filled with images of not only the Last Son of Krypton, but including, and in no way limited to; Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Batman, Robin, as well as The Legion of Super-Heroes. This book even has, what in my opinion was one of the weirdest, yet neatest villain ever created: The Composite Superman-half Superman on one side, half Batman on the other, and with all the powers of the previously mentioned Legion of Super Heroes.

I'm glad to see the life and art of Curt Swan get the respect it is due. Raves from colleagues in the industry accompany the many illustrations, adding a depth to how his work was admired not only by the fans, but also by other professionals. What could have been a boring textbook of the man ends up being a glorious celebration of his life and career.

Whither you get this book because you are a comic fan like me, or because you remember the days of sipping a cold soda on the front porch with the latest four-color adventures of Superman and his 'family', this is the kind of book that will make you appreciate the art as you get to know the man. Who could ask for any greater biography than that-you should be very proud of the work you have done here Mr. Zeno, and I think Mr. Swan would be as well.

Recompense
Joyce Morgan Hammock
Writers Showcase
c/o iUniverse
5220 South 16th Street, Suite 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN # 0595221750 352 pgs $18.95

Recompense: from the Latin word 'recompensare' meaning to return in kind. Or, if we want to use a modern term-payback. Moreover, we all know what the infamous 'they' say about what payback is, right? This is a story about deserved payback against one of most vile man I have read about in a while.

Eddie had it rough growing up. At the age of six, he was taken from his drug abusing negligent mother. Once placed into foster care, he came to live at the home of Elliot Bowers, a well-respected member of the Baltimore Police Department, working as a narcotics detective; his wife Marian, and their daughter Caroline.

Time passes and eventually he is accepted as one of the family. Until, now seventeen, Eddie decides to skip school one day. He heads back to the house, thinking it deserted since everyone was at either work or school. However, what he finds completely devastates him as he walks in on Caroline being raped by her father. He threatens the older man, but all that does is just make him angry. He asks Eddie just who he thinks would believe the word of some foster kid that had some trouble with the law against an upstanding member of the Police Department. Eddie, seeing he would really have no chance, says he will not mention anything as long as it never happens again, and Bowers agrees.

Eddie thought that would be it, until three days later and he is greeted by police cruisers when he gets home. The officers are there to arrest him for the rape of Caroline, and Detective Bowers is the one that filed the charges. Now arrested for a crime he didn't commit, Eddie needs all the help he can get from even the most unexpected places. Detective Bowers, on the other hand, begins to lose his grip on reality, causing him to spin further and further into a realm of violence and hatred that is far beyond his control.

Part of what makes this story riveting are that the things author Joyce Hammock writes about could happen to anyone. In this country, it seems the days of innocent until proven guilty have fallen by the wayside, especially with the circus that the media has devolved into, and the all to often arrest of someone who has sworn to uphold the public trust being found guilty of corruption on some level. I think the phrase should be changed to read, 'innocent until proven guilty unless you have enough money or influence, and then it doesn't matter'. That would be, unfortunately, much more realistic.

This is a hard book to stop reading since Ms. Hammock has created a story that is both compelling and terrifying at the same time. The characters and storyline drag you along page after page as you feel with Eddie, and what he is going through, and watch Detective Bowers descend deeper and deeper into the abyss of lies, hatred, and rage. This real page-turner will keep you guessing as to the outcome until the very end. She shows the system at work, both the good and bad, and not pulling any punches in the process. Bravo to you Ms. Hammock on a story well told, but I don't think I could read another like it anytime soon; emotionally this one wore me out.

"The One Who Would Be King"
Gareth Blackmore
Author's Publishing
104 Lake June Road NW, Lake Placid FL 33852
ISBN # 0972890211 368 pgs $14.95

Fantasy epics are a unique type of book. Not only does the author have to create an entire universe, but also he has to inhabit it with creatures set in an environment that is conducive for their existence, and still tell a story that will keep the reader enthralled. In the novel, The One Who Would Be King, author Gareth Blackmore has managed to do exactly that.

This is the story of Djar and his companion, a sprite named Cookie (I loved the interplay of the names by the way) and their adventures in the land of Mahhrain, a kingdom once ruled by Djar's father, yet now torn apart by the unjust and evil rule of Captain Karn and his hordes of goblins. Djar, with a reluctant Cookie in tow flee, to travel to the home of Dymorla, a witch that exists as a legend, to see if she can help restore peace in the lands, and the return of the rightful ruler. However, as with all of these type stories, nothing ever goes as simply as planned, and as their party grows larger, they find there is one needed ingredient to help them in their trials.

Dymorla tells them of a prophecy that records the appearance of a young man from earth that will help them. They magically pluck one from our world, a boy named Zack. In a unique twist to most of these types of tales, he is no savior in waiting, or granted with hidden magical powers, he is just a kid that they use to fulfill a prophecy they don't even believe in, but figure that it can't hurt and might get them some help from other factions for the battles to come. This really helps add to the reader's viewpoint, allowing the character of Zack to ask any questions that they might have, or explaining a viewpoint or situation clearly to him (he being a stranger) without it sounding like some thrown in necessary evil that can all to often bring a story to a grinding halt.

I want to compliment author Blackmore for something else he does, which I have been seeing with a lot more frequency lately, and this is one trend I really enjoy. It is clear that he has a story to tell, and he does it well, yet he is not bogged down with descriptive nuances or long boring narratives, taking the time instead to move the story along. I don't need to have a suit of armor described to me in excruciating detail. It is a suit of armor. Same goes for a horse, a castle, a tree, all of the standard accouterments. Now of course, if there is something special about something, then yes, there is time taken to stop and tell the unique qualities, then back to the tale. Too many times, I have read stories that have spent pages describing a tree, and you want to know what I do when I hit those? Probably the same that I'm sure every other reader does-skips past them to get to the story. So what is the point Mr. and Ms. Author, just to show us you can describe a leaf ad nausea, or are you being paid per word? Tell the story, describe what you need to; I can manage the rest myself, thank you, and get on with the story. But I have digressed, sorry.

The One Who Would Be King by Gareth Blackmore is a refreshingly told tale of fantasy with epic proportions that would make any fan of this genre pleased that they have taken the time to get to know the wonderful world that has been crafted between these covers. Pick up this book and find yourself transported to a world where magic is real, adventure is afoot, and righteousness can still prevail, providing you have a sword that glows of course. This was a fun read Mr. Blackmore, and I thank you for allowing me to share in the adventure.

Rick Mohr
Reviewer


Pogo's Bookshelf

Robert Hartwell Fiske
The Dictionary of Concise Writing
Marion Street Press, Inc
Oak Park IL
http://www.marionstreetpress.com
http://www.vocabula.com
ISBN 0966517660 $19.95

"Be parsimonious," Dr Chisholm exhorted students, discouraging padding and flabby writing. "Be terse." Sections, chapters and books are dedicated to improving language usage and excising extraneous words by restricting redundancies and tightening tautologies. Certainly writing CIP for the title verso requires skilful ellipsis in contrast to the sprawling verbosities that bloom and flourish in the bureaucrat's or marketing agent's weedpatch of speech, befuddling the already confused mind.

Creating the snappy summary and keywords to synposize a book's content borders between acute intelligence and profound insanity too arcane for average brains. However, repetition is a boring business, recalling scenes of Charlie Chaplin employed in the factory, a small cog in the impersonal industrialized complex churning out identical products with slightly different serial numbers, canned hash that is recycled twice for the consumer to ingest. Fiske argues that we become what we read and write just as food faddists and doctors warn patients of becoming what they eat. Too much fat, you get fat on the brain. Similarly, the headlines and articles duplicated and cloned repeatedly on the internet add little or no new news, but fill cyberspace with the same banalities. Repeating an incorrect scale three thousand time ingrains the habit of singing off-pitch so that the deluded singer believes he's correct, but the listener truly suffers.

Joining the Outspoken Minority Against Language Abuse, Fiske provides a weapon for defending the integrity of English usage with trenchant diligence, cutting through the sprawling vines of verbiage to expose the roots of recondite thoughts. "Illiterate" and "illiteracy" are chiefly associated now with the definition used by the Department of Census or Education, disregarding the broader understanding that intimates ignorance of letters or unread. It is not whether the person can read, but what he reads or writes. Although Mark Twain's formal education ended when he was twelve, shortly after his father's death, he is the paragon of American writing with a proclivity for wordcraft. Opening Fiske's book, an anecdote is cited, regarding Twain's advice to a twelve-year-old boy:

"I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words, and brief setences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in." (p11)

Twain, the wordwright, defies the Census definition of illiterate, because officially he is. He had approximately five years of formal education when he apprenticed himself to a printer. Many other recognized writers are also officially unlearned. Although Kipling studied in England, he left the school just prior to his final examinations. Dickens is another - yet they did not allow formal education to restrict their abilities. Anyone struggling through "The Notorious (Celebrated) Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", knows that Twain is not renown for his short sentences or for limited, repetitious vocabulary. The sentences stretch nearly as long as his name. He recognized the relationship between vocabulary and characterization to indicate intellectual level. He did not restrict his children's stories to a boring 12000 word vocabulary for the convenience of the student or the teacher. Yet a long sentence can wrap around the throat with the tenacious grip of a ravenous boa constrictor, paralyzing the reader. The brain freezes, the reader rendered helpless, is unable to comprehend the tangled sentence choking him and desperately struggles to survive to the end.

Fiske presents three basic tenets for good communication. They are:

Wordiness is an obstacle to success.
Wordiness is an obstacle to companionship.
and
Wordiness is an obstacle to self-knowledge.

We hide behind words, hoping for acceptance, desperate to be a jackdaw in peacock feathers. In adding plummage, we sharpen the quill, feathering the sentence with fuzzy down as a nest for laying eggs. Easily recognized, abuses hatch like cuckoos and propagate as we write Journalists, limited by word counts and column sizes, write inarticulately.

The art of deletion is learned through applied personal discipline with the careful study of examples for revision. Fiske presents ways of clipping the overgrown verbiage sprouting like hedges that create barriers to effective communication. The maze is better kept in the garden than scrawled on the page. "A society is as lax as its language," he warns. Why such wordiness? Such shoddiness among generations of high-tech people having access to information, education and literature that never existed in Twain's day. It's impossible to blame on the Educational Department or the school system. Language is learned first through imitation, but to be articulate-- discipline and study is needed. Can I really blame it on a teacher? Fiske adduces that habit, ignorance and imitation contribute to the profusion of wordiness that exists in daily reading, writing and speech today. Habitual slovenliness is difficult to eliminate, demanding concentrated effort, regimented like a diabetic on a strictly controlled diet. Ignorance can be overcome, but not passively. Requiring personal application and effort, the writer must study outstanding examples of literature and criticize himself. Imitation is the most difficult to correct, for even a bird can parrot, but original thought always risks rejection.

Writing skill has long been attributed to the direct influence of literature upon the reader. Crack a writer's handbook or style manual to find paragraphs and chapters dedicated to the proposition that not all writing is equal. Some is definitely terrible and some admirable. Hours are spent analyzing what makes one "good" and the other "bad" while boring is usually self-evident. Teachers intone, "Use one word for three; the precise over the obtuse; the concrete over the abstract," to each new crop of students. The desiderata continues to deaf ears with the never-ending refrains that resonate of the Litany of All Saints.

The frustrated editor tips another overweight manuscript into the gaping trapdoor yawning at his feet. "James Bond survived, but he won't" he mutters, coolly signing the rejection slip for the aspiring author's death warrant. Nor is it an editor's exaggeration to remind the budding writer of the contact scene in the Marx Brothers' film, "A Night at the Opera" while wishing to tap Chico's shoulder to pass on his scissors. Film producers delight in announcing the miles of cuts curling on the editing floor, but why can't writers, politicians and copywriters make the same claim? Why don't they imitate this singular Hollywood trait to make cuts? Eliminate redundancies to articulate concisely? To exercise the brain, take the Dictionary of Concise Writing off the shelf and challenge yourself with improving the examples and expanding your dreary, dull vocabulary. A weighty volume, made for customized grip, it fits neatly besides the Roget's Thesaurus when inserted vertically on your bookshelf. A more practical tool than being a doorstop. Use it.

The Dimwit's Dictionary: 5000 overused words and phrases and alterntives to them
Robert Hartwell Fiske
Marion Street press, Inc
Chicago IL
http://www.marionstreetpress.com
http://www.vocabula.com
ISBN 0966517679 $19.95

Robert Hartwell Fiske joins the League Against Language Abuse to preserve the intergrity of English. Muddled thinking produces muddled writing and muddled writing produces muddled thinking can be sung to "There's a hole in the bucket, oh Henry." Try it, repeat the first "muddled writing" thrice and you'll have caught the tune that Fowler and Fowler were singing decades before from the trenches.

Naturally, you won't mind that we slip out while you rehearse this ditty?

More directly, a grade school teacher used to announce regularly, "The brain is a muscle - exercise it" intimating that we were flabby thinkers. Just as slouching in the chair deforms the spine, so slovenly writing corrodes the brain and distorts communication, rendering the effort ineffective.

Stylebooks and manuals are produced by gross tonnage to lift the writer into better literary habits, but without routine application, writing slides into slipshod performance like a fishtailing Cadillac with bald tires on black ice. Fiske identifies Dimwitticisms a foreign, ineffectual and infantile phrases, grammatical gimmicks, moribund metaphors, topid terms, withered words and quack equations; but in doing so, he's also guilty of offensive alliteration to create such terms.

Although the terminology is unique, the problems are not. By Grammatical Gimmicks, Fiske indicates unnecessary parenthesis or unwanted interjections that add nothing to the meaning, but break the flow of communication. Ineffectual phrases are all those windy additions that lengthen but do not strengthen-- it is important to realize; the writer wishes to inform you - being nothing more than undesirable wordiness or replicating useless verbs.

The litany of sins continues with Insipid Similes and Plebian Sentiments, Popular Prescriptions and Withered Words. Guilty I now stand before My Maker awaiting the Day of Judgment: mea culpa, confiteor ideor; I have failed in what I have done and left undone; Alvinu malchenu. Unrepentant, I delight in humongous chunks of chocolate fudge cake with aromatic coffee spiced with cinnamon, allspice and badyan and search about high and low for the whippinhg cream. Moreover, a plebe, I am gulity of plebian sentiments as never attained the snobbishness of aristocracy. I'm not stupid you know, just low-brain. And frequently, I am in a bad mood, but Gates was in a black one which blew the software out on Sunday night. An electrifying experience. Humongous isn't just an Infantile phrase, but permament Infantile Phase.

However, from my bad example of low-brain, plebian sentiments and infantile phrases, you can recognize the true need of this book to educate me-- a book reviewer with a regular roost on the Midwest Book Review --until they realize that I am neither articulate nor intellectual; but dismally illiterate.

Written in a practical A-Z form, crack the book open to examine your state of illiteracy. Each entry is identified by classification and given an example and form of revision, making it a practical thesaurus for avoiding overused words and redundant phrases. A Handbook of Moribund Metaphors, it offers unlimited creativity for next year's Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest. Imagine creating a sonnet with nothing but Moribund Metaphors and Wretched Redundancies! The National Library of Poetry will surely honor your courageous literary forays with a plaque that will cost you only 125 USD.

And truly, I stand guilty of sowing Withered Words amongst the rows of sentences with optimism that they will regenerate and sprout yet another crop. My childhood education recalls the Parable of the Sower. It was not the seed, but the barren ground that hindered growth. Words flourish in varied envronments, and Europeans staunchly use vocabulary that Fiske does not, but has nothing to do with the level of education or sophistication. They are differences of preference in usage.

Certainly, a worthy dictionary to add to your reference shelf for broadening vocabulary usage and exercising the brain to become fitter and quicker for revising text.

Pogo
Reviewer


Paul's Bookshelf

The Ugly Princess
Elizabeth K. Burton
Zumaya Publications
P.O. Box 44062, Burnaby, BC V5B 4Y2 Canada
http://www.zumayapublications.com
ISBN 1894942094, 207 pages, $14.00

King Edrick of Nadwich chokes to death on a chicken bone on his wedding night (not his first wedding). It's bad enough that the person next in line to the throne is his daughter, Jahmelle; she is said to be so ugly that she has spent her entire life locked away in a faraway castle with only trolls as company.

Jahmelle is the product of a very brief marriage between Edrick and the daughter of the chief of the Moldori. They are a race of fearsome warriors who fight like alley cats when insulted (which happens very easily) and are into ritual face scarring. It's up to the King's Champion, Sir Christopher Evergild, to bring Jahmelle back to assume power, and to keep her from suffering an "accident" along the way.

Meantime, back at the castle, the throne is not empty. Benifaz, one of the King's Ministers, has declared himself Regent, charged Evergild with treason and called Jahmelle an impostor. He has also stripped the Ruford Seneschal, a senior member of the castle staff, of his position and put him on the equivalent of Death Row. He escapes with much help from Dagger Jack Tarragent, a former noble and kin of Edrick, until he was forced into a life of crime. Jack is an expert at getting into places where he is not welcome, then getting out with no one the wiser.

Knowing that they are being sought by Benifaz's men, Evergild begins to look on his escorting of Princess Jahmelle as more than just a duty. Even though she remains veiled through the entire trip, Evergild begins to fall in love with her. The thought of marriage between a person of royal blood, like Jahmelle, and someone not of royal blood, like Evergild, is very rare, but not impossible.

I really liked this story. It's good, lighter, summertime-type reading that also has a few things to say. It's very much worth reading.

Mother of Kings
Poul Anderson
Tor Books
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
http://www.tor.com
ISBN 0312874480, $27.95, 444 pages

Set in the tenth century, this is the story of Gunnhild, Queen of Norway and England (a real person). This was the waning days of the Age of Vikings.

As a child, Gunnhild learns the ways of withcraft from a Finnish concubine of her father, a powerful Norse chieftain. She also notices Eirik, son of their king. Growing up, Gunnhild keeps her eyes open and learns the relationship between the powerful and the weak. But she doesn't want to stop there. She becomes a spaewife, a master in witchcraft and sorcery, a knower of the Gods.

She marries Eirik, and things are wonderful for a while. She gives him seven sons, all of whom become great warriors, and one daughter, Ragnhild. Forced into a political marriage, Ragnhild gets a reputation as someone whose husbands tend to die before their time. Eirik's strength and Gunnhild's craftiness and knowledge of sorcery make them formidable foes.

Haakon, another son of Eirik's father, has an equally strong claim as Eirik to be King of Norway. This is a time of building alliances for both men among the groups in that part of the world. The fortunes of Eirik and Gunnhild start taking a turn for the worst. They are forced to flee Norway and live for a time in York, England. Anotherv time they flee to the Orkney Islands, part of present-day Scotland. Eirik dies in battle, as do his sons, one by one. Meantime, Christianity comes to that part of the world. Haakon embraces this new religion, partly because his best friend becomes a priest. He expects those in aliiance with him to do the same. But, there are those, including powerful people, who are not happy with the old gods being tossed aside.

This is a great novel. It's a big novel, both in size and in scope, so it is not easy or quick reading. Once again, Anderson shows why he was a master of the genre. The style of writing gives the impression that it was actually written a thousand years ago. Recently translated, it was mispackaged as Fiction instead of History. I know of no other contemporary writer in the field who can consistently do that like Anderson.

This book will take some patience, but it is highly recommended.

Working the Hard Side of the Street
Kirk Alex
Tucumcari Press
P.O. Box 40998, Tucson, AZ 85717-0998
tucumcaripress@earthlink.net
ISBN 0939122251, $14.95, 366 pages

This is a group of short stories and poems about life in present-day Hollywood,