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Reviewer's Bookwatch

Volume 12, Number 11 November 2012 Home | RBW Index

Table of Contents

Reviewer's Choice Andy's Bookshelf Ann's Bookshelf
Bethany's Bookshelf Buhle's Bookshelf Burroughs' Bookshelf
Carson's Bookshelf Christy's Bookshelf Clark's Bookshelf
Crocco's Bookshelf Daniel's Bookshelf Danvas' Bookshelf
Duncan's Bookshelf Gail's Bookshelf Gary's Bookshelf
Gloria's Bookshelf Gorden's Bookshelf Harwood's Bookshelf
Heidi's Bookshelf Janet's Bookshelf Josh's Bookshelf
Karyn's Bookshelf Katherine's Bookshelf Logan's Bookshelf
Margaret's Bookshelf Marjorie's Bookshelf Mayra's Bookshelf
Paul's Bookshelf Peggy's Bookshelf Richard's Bookshelf
Riva's Bookshelf Sandra's Bookshelf Teri's Bookshelf
Theodore's Bookshelf    


Reviewer's Choice

42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role
Pam Fox Rollin
Super Star Press
20660 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210
Cupertino, CA 95014
9781607731016, $19.95, www.amazon.com

Bonnie Jo Davis
Reviewer

Author Pam Fox Rollin relied on her twenty years of experience in leadership development, management education and team building when writing this book and it shows. Included in the book are the stories from top executives who offer advice based on their own, hard learned lessons.

According to the article "The Revolving Door of Talent," by L. Kelly-Radford in CEO Magazine in August/September, 2001 one-quarter of senior executives promoted from within fail in the first 18 months; one-third of outside hires fail. I believe many of these failures could have been prevented if these leaders had read "42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role: The Manual They Didn't Hand You When You Made VP, Director, or Manager".

Although written for senior managers, it applies to anyone stepping into a new role. You'll learn about making the most of your first few weeks or months on the job, how to network and build relationships, how to engage and work with your team, how to set realistic goals, how to avoid mistakes and how to work with people who wanted your job but didn't get it.

42 Rules For Your New Leadership Role is divided into the following seven sections:

Part I Set Yourself Up For Success
Part II Map the Terrain
Part III Show Up Wisely
Part IV Start Your Wins
Part V Create Your Management System
Part VI Stay Smart
Part VII Set You and Your Team To Thrive

My favorite chapter was Rule 7 "Map What Matters to People with Power". If you follow the instructions in this chapter you will have a "Power Map" of the people who matter most, what they care about, what they want from you and much, much more. Keeping this "Power Map" updated will help you negotiate the treacherous waters of office politics.

42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role is the book I wish I was handed before I took my first leadership position many years ago. I believe every business can benefit by handing this book out to employees who are about to be promoted into a leadership role and to new leaders who were hired from the outside.

Visit http://42rules.com/book/42-rules-for-your-new-leadership-role to purchase the book or to request a free excerpt.

Wisdom Distilled from the Daily
Joan Chittister
Harper One
c/o HarperCollins
10 East 53rd St, New York, NY 10022
9780060613990, $13.99, www.harperone.com

CarrieAnn Thunell
Reviewer

I selected "Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of Saint Benedict Today" to review because I have the good fortune to live within a mile of a Benedictine Abbey where the mass is chanted in plainsong Gregorian chant. Being impressed with the Abbey, I sought to learn more about their Benedictine tradition.

The author, Joan Chittister, is a former prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, where she remains as an active member. Among the missions of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie are the Benedictines for Peace, Monasteries of the Heart, and the Mount Magazine. Sister Chittister serves as co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the UN. In 2011 she published Monasteries of the Heart, a book used in conjunction with a new program being developed to enable lay groups to integrate Benedictine spirituality into their own lives. Sister Chittister has lived as a Benedictine monastic for over 30 years and writes as only one whose life has been shaped, matured, and seasoned by the Rule, can. Her writing emerges from a wellspring of depth, yet it is accessible, contemporary, deeply ecological, and passionately engaged.

The book is not arranged as a pure translation of the Rule, point by point, with commentary. It is, rather, a topically arranged series of essays that use short passages from the Rule as jumping off points. For this reason, it is not complete as an introduction to the Rule of Saint Benedict. It is at its best as an excellent companion to a good translation of the Rule. Although giving occasional examples of how the different themes in the Rule can be applied in a secular life, the majority of her illustrations are drawn from her own monastic life, and as such, not always easy to apply to urban family life. Nonetheless, there is a great deal to ponder in this work.

In chapter 1, page 12, she writes, "When I first entered monastic life, I was given a copy of the Rule. It made no sense to me. I wanted directions... I wanted holiness on the installment plan... it took me years to realize that the Rule distilled years of experience..." She writes of how the meaning of the Rule deepened and changed for her over the decades.

Chapter 2 opens with a quote from the prologue of the Rule concerning the need to listen to the Holy Spirit. On page 15, she says, "Benedictine spirituality is about listening to four realities: the Gospels, the Rule, one another, and the world around us." On page 16, she reminds us that, "We listen to Scripture... to shield us from lesser motives." She explains how, through deep listening, we are led to a prayerful life: "Prayer is the filter through which we learn, if we listen hard enough, to see our world aright and anew and without which we live life with souls that are deaf and dumb and blind." [page 17]

But prayer is not sufficient by itself. It is an act that is to be used to enlarge our hearts so that we respond to the needs of those around us: "There are people who go to prayer groups and never give a cent to the poor." [page17] Prayer must move us to love, and love moves us to tangible acts of compassion. On page 18 she comments that, "It takes a lot of listening to hear the needs of those around us before they even speak them. But there is no good human community without it. Listening and love are clearly of a piece." Community it would seem is the hub of Benedictine spirituality. In a culture that glorifies individual differences and enshrines diverse lifestyles and relativistic cultural ethics, there is no hub from which community can radiate. She assures us that, "Benedictine listening is about seeking out wise direction as well... to expose our ideas to the critical voice of a wiser heart."[p 17] Returning to the discipline of listening to scripture, she says on page 22 that, "Scripture, the Rule insists, must be read daily. How can we hear the voice of God if we are not familiar with it?" Community provides us with solidarity and council: "Benedictine requires that everything must be done with counsel. Benedictine spirituality has no room for arrogance elevated to the level of inspiration." [p 23]

The book is sprinkled with wise ancient monastic tales that shed light on Benedictine values. These tales add a certain charm to the book, reminding us of the oral and later, written, tradition that binds the Benedictine community and its teachings together from one generation to the next with the loving threads of continuity, love, and wisdom.

Chapter three, entitled Prayer and Lectio, opens with a paragraph from the Rule that gives advise concerning the proper way to pray. Sister Chittister comments that, "Prayer that is regular confounds both self-importance and the wiles of the world."[p 29] On page 32 she informs us that, "Benedictine prayer is based almost totally in the Psalms and in the Scriptures", and that, "The scriptures call us to put on the mind of Christ." But each component of Benedictine spirituality is linked integrally to the others as we see on page 36 where the author says that, "The praying community becomes the vehicle for my own fidelity. Because they are there praying, I go to prayer. Because they are there always, I make room in my life for them and for God." But always, she reminds us that, "Prayer must be scriptural, not simply personal."[37]

The theme of community ties the book together as we see on page 46:" When we transcend ourselves for the other,... community becomes the sacrament of human fulfillment and purpose in life.", and, "We develop our gifts in the Benedictine tradition when we use them for the good of others...Our gifts are to be given away so that the whole human community is richer for our having been here." We begin to get a glimpse of the ramifications of this. We are not talking about Benedictines being leaven for the small, local cloistered monastic community; we are talking about spreading the gifts of Benedictine spirituality throughout the global human community everywhere, lay and monastic alike. We are also entertaining the idea that non-monastics and non-religious can indeed adapt the Rule into their nuclear families, and neighborhood functions. This idea becomes more and more of a focus in her later books, especially Monasteries of the Heart.

In chapter 5, the author takes on what is probably the most unpopular aspect of the Rule, the Twelve Degrees of Humility. In the Benedictine Rule, there are twelve distinct stages of humility, and from a reading of the Rule itself, they seem not only unattainable, but most modern readers would question why anyone would want to. The sixth degree of humility states that a monk must "accept all that is crude and harsh and thinks himself a poor and worthless workman" [from the Rule] But thanks to Sister Chittister, the entire chapter on humility from the Rule is rendered not only achievable, but it's truly healthy effects on one's soul are clearly apparent. On page 54 she states that, "The pride that is the opposite of monastic humility is the desire to be my own God and to control other people and other things." Furthermore, she says, "Humility is the foundation of community and family and friendship and love. Humility comes from understanding my place in the universe."[p 55] She meticulously goes through each of the twelve degrees and shows the great beauty and desirability they contain for our souls.

Chapter 6 is entitled, Monastic Mindfulness: A Blend of Harmony, Wholeness, and Balance. This is a powerful chapter that reminds us of our duty to live in right relationship to the Earth. I was delighted to discover that the values I have most admired in American Buddhism, those of mindfulness, meditation, and a deep reverence for the Earth, have always been a part of my own tradition. In Catholicism and Protestantism alike, these values have often been overshadowed by the unhelpful infiltration of self-serving and narcissistic values of a mass culture that has been seduced by easy comfort, power and wealth. Hence we have the thinly veiled empire building of the paired "God and country" subduing the world as national defense, the prosperity doctrine of "pray right and grow rich", and the idea that the Earth is ours to conquer, plunder, and subdue until such time as "God makes us a new one." All this contrasts sharply with the Benedictine values of living in right relationship to God, community, and the entire planet. Chittister reminds us that, "Awareness of the sacred in life is what holds our world together and the lack of awareness and sacred care is what is tearing our world apart. We have covered the earth with concrete and wonder why children have little respect for the land. We spill refuse into our rivers and wonder why boaters drop their paper plates and plastic bags and old rubber shoes overboard. We pump pollution into our skies and question the rising incidence of lung cancer... We make earth and heaven one large refuse dump and wonder why whole species of animals are becoming extinct and forests have disappeared and the ozone shield is shriveling."[p 69] She reminds us that when we begin to truly align our lives with Benedictine spiritual values, we begin to heal from all these self-destructive paths as we open our eyes to the sacredness of all things within the planetary web of life. "Monastic mindfulness sees everything as one: the people of the earth, the resources of the earth, the products of the earth. Each of them is to be used in ways that do not injure any of the others. Each of them is to be cared for well."[p 71]

Sister Chittister reminds us that this ancient Rule is as relevant today, if not more so, than when it was first penned. A well-crafted and timely work of poetic beauty and global importance.

Private Oz
Jame Patterson and Michael White
Century Australia
9781864711875, A$32.95

David Skea, Reviewer
http://ann.skea.com

Those who know James Patterson's novels will need no introduction to this, his latest, book written with the collaboration of Michael White from Perth, Western Australia. James Patterson is the author of some of the most popular crime series of the past decade including the Women's Murder Club and the Alex Cross novels. Michael White is probably better known for his non-fiction work which includes The Fruits of War and The Kennedy Conspiracy.

PRIVATE is an investigation company initially started by Jack Morgan, a wounded Afghanistan War hero. Originally based in Los Angeles there are now branches in Berlin and London. This novel continues the PRIVATE International sagas as it moves into a new Australian branch office based near the Opera House in Sydney.

Just as the new staff have settled in and a glittering launch party is being held a young blood-soaked and bullet-ridden Asian man staggers into the reception and murder and kidnappings ensue. Within days the agency's case load is full with this and other crimes.

The action take place over a week and is told in 142 very short chapters - one is only 88 words - which, in my view, appear more like a storyboard written for a movie or a TV production. I personally couldn't identify with any of the characters being written about. However there are many who like this style of writing and no doubt will enjoy this book.

James Patterson is a supporter of the National Literacy Trust, a UK based charity that changes peoples' lives through literacy.

On the Shoreline of Knowledge: Irish Wanderings
Chris Arthur
University of Iowa Press
119 W Park Road, 100 Kuhl House
Iowa City, IA 52242-1000
9781609381127, $21.95, www.uiowapress.org

Deacon Solomon
Reviewer

Some years back I watched Russell Crowe (in character as Capt. "Lucky" Jack Aubrey) and Paul Bettany (in character as Ship's Surgeon Dr. Stephen Maturin) have an argument. After listening to Maturin hem and haw and scuff his rhetorical feet for a few long seconds, Aubrey told him off: "Bah! You talk like an Irishman."

Maturin had a stopper ready to hand. He said: "Well, I am an Irishman."

That scene came to mind the other day while I pondered Chris Arthur's new book, 'On the Shoreline of Knowledge' (Iowa City, Iowa; University of Iowa Press; 2012). Arthur is an intellectual who grew up near Ulster. Educated in Ireland, he made a career of teaching at universities in Scotland, England and Wales. Some years ago, he took to writing essays and books. Today Arthur's works are published on both sides of the Atlantic; they win awards and a fair amount of acclaim.

Arthur's skill as a wordsmith is both indisputable and impressive. His natural talent was shaped and polished at some of the best schools in the world. In reading him it's plain he's got a vocabulary that would dwarf a catalog of U.S. congresscritters' character defects. Arthur is comfortable with his learning so he's not afraid to show it and, when he does, he shows it gracefully. Any writer who can express with one word what I'd need twenty or more to articulate gets my respect. That's one reason I say: Chris Arthur is a writer from whom other writers can learn. Withal he is easily read and just as easily understood, which (considering his teaching background) may be the most impressive thing about his work.

WordPerfect(c) tells me that 'Shoreline of Knowledge' is a book of 74,264 words crafted into a baker's dozen essays that average 5,712 words each. Essay titles hint at metaphysicality and do not mislead: 'Chestnuts;' 'Zen's Bull in the Tread of Memory;' 'Looking Behind Nothing's Door;' 'When Now Unstitches Then and Is in Turn Undone;' 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Briefcase;' 'Pencil Marks;' 'Kyklos, or, Two Photographs, an E-mail, Children with Bicycles, and the Wheel of Life,' and the rest are metaphorically rich and holistically bent. In each of these works, metaphors form circles of circles that invite questions and the whole fits neatly within the greater circle of the essay itself.

Of course any collection of a single author's essays serves as a sampler of that author's intellectual wares. But 'Shoreline of Knowledge' is more than just that, as Arthur explains in his Introduction:

"The practice of painting a circle (enso) with a single fluent brushstroke, with one focused sweep of the hand, is a discipline close to the heart of Zen. The circle is variously taken to represent enlightenment, clear seeing, the absolute, one-pointedness of concentration, the universe. I'm less interested in what it might depict than in what it reveals about the person who attempts it. Michael Diener sums up well what an enso can tell us in this regard: 'It is said that the state of mind of the painter can be particularly clearly read in the manner of execution of such a circle - only someone who is inwardly collected and in equilibrium is capable of painting a strong and well balanced circle.' I make no claim to have reached the literary equivalent of being 'inwardly collected and in equilibrium' such that I can write 'strong and well balanced' essays. My hope is that the pieces I've assembled here, while being some way removed from the perfect enso, do not miss their mark entirely."

In 'Kyklos,' Arthur uses a paragraph to express respect for the work of American essayist E.B. White. By doing so, Arthur sings in tune with American critic Christopher Lehman Haupt, who once wrote of White:

"With his relaxed serendipitous technique of seeming to stumble on his subject by way of the back door, he lends you confidence that you don't really have to know much about a thing to write about it intelligently; you need only possess the skill to write, along with a lot of sanity. Thus, if you've got the hang of it, you can arrive at the subject of disarmament by way of Mary Martin's furniture, or at the prospects of American democracy by the route of a dachshund named Fred."

White's influence shows throughout 'Shoreline of Knowledge.' In 'Chestnuts,' for example, Mr. Arthur (presumably relaxed) serendipitously recollects his childhood attraction to horse chestnuts (buckeyes). From there Arthur's remembrance shifts to his daughter's yen for a tweed coat that once belonged to his mother. Handling that coat, Arthur found a "sea heart" - the seed of a plant called "the monkey ladder" (Entada gigas) - that his mother carried in her pocket as a keepsake, perhaps a lucky piece. The discovery carries his thought (and readers) to the jungles of Brazil, where we learn the strange origin of the sea heart and - stranger still - of the seeds' two-year ocean voyage to the beaches of Ireland and other nations of Europe.

Every transition raises questions: Why do we collect things? Why are we attracted to the things we collect? Why are we attracted to a thing one day and careless of it the next? Arthur asks many such questions, to some of which he offers answers. He discusses some of the books that his questions inspired him to read over the years. And if he read as many more, it seems to me, many of Arthur's questions would never be answered this side of the grave.

Be that as it may, the circle completes when we all arrive in Amsterdam to ponder the chestnut tree that Anne Frank once pondered from the window of her secret hide. There Arthur concludes by drawing a final metaphor:

"....I find myself thinking that words are like drift-seeds. Encased in writing, they float on the unpredictable currents of our interest, moved by the winds of chance and accident, able to reach distant destinations, or just sink unnoticed. It's hard to predict what company an essay or a poem, a play or a novel, a diary or a work of natural history will keep as it floats in the waters of reading, or where its journey might take it. As an author, I often wonder where my drift-seeds go and whether anyone will find them. Perhaps I shouldn't ask for anything more than the evidence our sea heart-words provide of lives and times beyond our own, of the possibility of landfall, both proximate and distant, in someone else's understanding. Is this not enough to steel the nerve and attempt our repeated, hazardous voyages between self and other, now and then?"

Answering that last question: it would have been enough for this writer had I not read deeper into the book. By the time I got to the fourth essay, 'Pencil Marks,' I was getting tired of the formula: the encounter with an artifact sparks a memory that sparks one thought, then another and another until, finally, the enso closes at some supposed profundity.

'Pencil Marks' begins when Arthur visits his childhood home. Walking the old neighborhood, he crosses a lot that he and his chums knew as "Dr. Mathieson's Hill." There he finds a pencil on the ground. It is no sort of relic but an ordinary, yellow, wooden lead pencil such as any child can buy for a few cents at school. Arthur pockets the thing and carts it home for a keepsake, something to be kept in his desk drawer, to be treasured and handled and dreamt over in idle moments, the thing that sparks the circle of memories that comprise 'Pencil Marks'.

I laughed aloud when I thought of dumbbell Harriet Smith mooning over Mr. Elton's discarded pencil stub in Jane Austen's Emma. Arthur himself sees the unwholesome questions that pencil raises:

"The assumption is that this is something silly, that one should desist from the foolish attribution of worth to something undeserving of it. I can understand this point of view. Clearly, a yellow pencil is no gold ingot; it's neither rare nor precious. Its status as the most ordinary of objects is underscored by the fact that no one else bothered to pick it up, though many must have noticed it so brightly lying there. It's easy to view it as irredeemably trivial and dismiss its elevation into something important as grotesquely sentimental. Such dismissal, though tempting, risks closing off a line of sight before we've seen what it has to offer. It is a line of sight, I believe, that offers considerable depth of vision into the tangled heart of being and belonging."

Maybe so, but I ain't buyin' it. Mr. Arthur writes beautiful prose. He has learned the structure of Mr. White's essays but still, Arthur hasn't got the knack. White's respect for readers shows in his regard for credibility, which expresses itself in what Lehman Haupt called White's "relaxed serendipitous technique of seeming to stumble upon his subject." But 'Shoreline of Knowledge' shows less regard for readers' good sense. My BS alarm started acting up away back in the Introduction, at the sentence that reads: "My hope is that the pieces I've assembled here, while being some way removed from the perfect enso, do not miss their mark entirely." Thus Arthur hopes to be "a little bit perfect," which puts him in a coracle with the Irish lass who hoped to be "only a little bit pregnant."

Solomon sez: That's my problem with 'Shoreline of Knowledge.' I do not accuse Mr. Arthur of lying; I say only that some of his words move me to distrust. It may be a personal problem, but it is, nevertheless, how I feel about this book. Mr. Arthur writes like an Irishman. Three stars for what might have been a four-star effort and a "Thank you!" for Lucky Jack Aubrey, wherever that sea dog may rove.

Hurricane
Ken Douglas
Bootleg Press
2250 Crestbrook Road, Medford, Oregon 97505
http://www.bootlegpress.com
9780976277958, $0.99 (eBook), $14.40 (paperback)

Don Martin
Reviewer

Julie Tanaka, her husband Hideo, and daughter Meiko live on the sailboat Fallen Angel in Trinidad. Hideo is a transfer captain. He sails boats from one place to another. He is hired to sail a boat from Trinidad to California. But enroute the boat explodes killing all on board, including Hideo. The authorities investigate and find the boat was packed with millions of dollars in cocaine.

The police show up one morning to inform Julie of her husband's death. And they have some questions. While the police are still there Broxton from the DEA shows up. He also has some questions. He wants to know how much Julie knows about the drugs, and if Hideo was involved with a drug cartel. Julie explains that transfer captains are free-lance. They don't know the purpose of the sail, or what the cargo is. This satisfies the police and Broxton. Just about when they are going to leave a process server shows up. The Fallen Angel is being repossessed and Julie and Meiko must leave it immediately. Seems Hideo hasn't paid a shipyard bill. But Julie knows this is false, because the bill was paid. One of the policemen is sympathetic to the new widow and arrests the process server. But he can only be held for 24 hours. The cop tells Julie she had better be off the island by noon tomorrow.

The problem is Julie has never sailed anything. And the Fallen Angel is a custom-built 60 foot racing sailboat. It normally takes a crew of 4 or 5 men to operate it. But she has no choice. The next morning she and Meiko sail it over to the next island. That afternoon Victor shows up. He says he noticed the Fallen Angel was missing and was out trying to find it. He asks Julie what she is doing, and she says she is just trying to get as far away from Trinidad as she can. Victor knows Julie can't sail, so he offers to crew for a while and teach Julie how to sail. Julie doesn't like Victor and she doesn't trust him. But she she has no choice here either, and Victor joins the crew.

As the three of them sail out to sea they discover the boat has been sabotaged. The lines to the sails have been very nearly severed. Any tension on them will snap the lines. Holes have also been drilled in the hull and water is flooding the boat. It will sink if they can't repair that. And water has been poured in the gas tank, and the engine won't run. They repair the lines and the holes in the hull as best they can. But there is nothing they can do about the engine. So they set in at the nearest island. Victor says he will go to Trinidad and return with a mechanic in a few days. Laura doesn't want to wait, and hires a local mechanic, Henry, who quickly fixes the engine. With the boat repaired Julie and Meiko set sail for another island.

On the way Meiko notices they are being tailed by another boat. This begins a cat and mouse game from island to island which takes up most of the book. Meanwhile Broxton, the DEA agent, has been framed. As he investigates that he learns the Salizar drug cartel wants the Fallen Angel. Julie doesn't know it, but the boat is also filled with millions of dollars in cocaine. And the cartel suspects Julie has the key to an airport locker that has $10 million in cash in it. Broxton teams up with T-Bone Powers, a drug smuggler himself, and sets out to find the Fallen Angel and save the two women from a certain death.

The book has quite a lot of action in it. Broxton knows the people chasing the Fallen Angel are drug cartel members. And Julie discovers that since the Fallen Angel is a racing boat she can outrun anything the cartel throws at her. But it's only a matter of time before they catch her. She'll make a mistake eventually. When Broxton shows up he starts to kill the crew of the chasing boat. But the cartel has sent out a second boat. So now Julie has two cartel boats chasing her. She eludes them several times, and tries to sail to places they wouldn't suspect she'd be. But they eventually find her every time.

The hurricane enters late. The story shifts from the chase to how an inexperienced sailor can weather a major hurricane. It's close many times, but Julie manages to get through it.

Hurricane is a solid book. The characters and the plot are nicely developed. There is a lot of tension in parts of the book. The book reads fairly fast. One thing I liked was the technical details of sailing a boat of that size are correct. One criticism I would have is I do think the title is misleading. From what I had read of the book I thought it would be about an inexperienced sailor facing a hurricane. But the hurricane appears very late in the book, and even then it doesn't play much of a part.

The Mere Weight of Words
Carissa Halston
Aqueous Books
P.O. Box 6816, New Orleans, LA 70174
http://www.aqueousbooks.com
9780984739950, $14.00, www.amazon.com

Kat Collins
Reviewer

Carissa Halston's novella is a deeply felt tale of fathers and daughters which brings us up against the limits of language. Meredith, known as simply Mere, is a linguist who grapples with the reinvention of her career after suffering from facial palsy, then the reinvention of herself when faced with the potential loss of her father, from whom she's been estranged for nearly twenty years.

When Meredith initially hears that her estranged father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she says nothing. When Eliot, a long-time friend of her father's, calls and asks her to see him, she hangs up. But once she runs out of ways to say no, Mere agrees to visit, reasoning that he'll soon lose all memory of their estrangement. He'll forget about her paralysis. He'll forget about their fights. He'll forget that he ever stopped loving her mother and be the person Mere adored. She leaves her house certain she'll say something she can't take back and arrives at his knowing he'll someday forget she visited at all. As her glamorous film-director father slowly recedes into Alzheimer's, Meredith tries again to reconnect with him. At the same time she considers the effects of his legacy on her own relationships.

Mere is a source of soul-deep strength and sharp-tongued wit belying a vulnerable tenderness underneath. She is terrified of losing who she was as she can no longer pursue her dreams of being a professional linguist and phoneticist. She is terrified, hurt, and angry at her mother and father, yet longs for her father's approval. She banters acidly back and forth against Patrick, her rock and her nemesis, who she eventually moves in with because it's practical (she won't admit to herself or him that she loves him).

In language honest and heartfelt, Carissa Halston presents Mere's life with and without her father, and how Mere fills his absence with worry, wit, and words. Halston's tough-minded tenderness is sharp-tongued and subtle and the svelte vigor of her prose is sure to move her readers to countless moments of recognition and aha's. It's a struggle at times to get through this story as the vocabulary is above a typical reader's level (befitting of a linguist, though). It opened my eyes to a whole new world of words; just make sure to keep a dictionary nearby.


Andy's Bookshelf

The Crises Of Capitalism
Saral Sarkar
Counterpoint Press
1919 Fifth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710-1916
www.counterpointpress.com
9781619020061, $27.00, www.amazon.com

Capitalism is an economic system that is based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for profit. Other elements central to capitalism include competitive markets, wage labor and capital accumulation. There are multiple variants of capitalism, including laissez-faire, welfare capitalism and state capitalism. Capitalism is considered to have been applied in a variety of historical cases, varying in time, geography, politics, and culture. There is general agreement that capitalism became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. Competitive markets may also be found in market-based alternatives to capitalism such as market socialism and co-operative economics.

Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the analysis of capitalism. Economists usually emphasize the degree to which government does not have control over markets (laissez faire), as well as the importance of property rights. Most political economists emphasize private property as well, in addition to power relations, wage labor, class, and the uniqueness of capitalism as a historical formation. The extent to which different markets are free, as well as the rules defining private property, is a matter of politics and policy. Many states have what are termed mixed economies, referring to the varying degree of planned and market-driven elements in a state's economic system. A number of political ideologies have emerged in support of various types of capitalism, the most prominent being economic liberalism.

The term capitalism gradually spread throughout the Western world in the 19th and 20th centuries largely through the writings of Karl Marx.

Ably translated into English by Graciela Calderon, "The Crises of Capitalism: A Different Study of Political Economy" by academician and ecosocialism advocate Saral Sarkar is a 224 page study on the weaknesses of capitalism as an economic system. Beginning with Marxists theories of financial crises, through an analytical description of the 'Great Depression', to Keynesian approaches to financial recovery, to the phenomenon of 'stagflation' and the ultimate failure of Keynesian approaches, to globalized neo[-liberal capitalism, and the future of capitalism, "The Crises of Capitalism" is an informed and informative work of superbly presented scholarship. Of special note is the concluding chapter 'The Global Economic Crisis of 2008-2010'.

Enhanced with extensive notes and a listing of references, "The Crises of Capitalism: A Different Study of Political Economy" is a seminal body of work that is especially recommended for academic library Economic Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Adele: The Biography
Chas Newkey-Burden
The Overlook Press
141 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10012
www.overlookpress.com
9781468303537, $14.95, www.amazon.com

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988), better known to her legions of fans simply as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Adele was offered a recording contract from XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace in 2006. The next year she received the Brit Awards "Critics' Choice" award and won the BBC Sound of 2008. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to much commercial and critical success. It certified four times platinum in the UK, and double platinum in the US. Her career in the US was boosted by a Saturday Night Live appearance in late 2008. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Adele received the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Adele released her second album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut, earning the singer six Grammy Awards in 2012 including Album of the Year, equaling the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night. The album has also helped her receive numerous other awards, including two Brit Awards and three American Music Awards. The album has been certified 16 times platinum in the UK; in the US the album has held the top position longer than any other album since 1985. The album has sold 25 million copies worldwide.

The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness World Records. She is the first artist to sell more than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the UK. With her two albums and the first two singles from 21, "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You", Adele became the first living artist to achieve the feat of having two top-five hits in both the UK Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since The Beatles in 1964. With her third release from the album, "Set Fire to the Rain", becoming her third number one single in the US, Adele became the first artist in history to lead the Billboard 200 concurrently with three Billboard Hot 100 number-ones.

Adele is the first female in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three singles in the top 10 at the same time as a lead artist, and the first female artist to have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. 21 is the longest running number one album by a female solo artist on the UK and US Albums Chart. In 2011, Billboard named Adele artist of the year. In 2012, Adele was listed at number five on VH1's 100 Greatest Women In Music, and the American magazine Time named Adele one of the most influential people in the world.

"Adele: The Biography" by journalist and celebrity biographer Chas Newkey-Burden is a 288 page, detailed account of the life and times of a truly gifted performer, including the burdens and rewards of her celebrity status. Superbly researched and deftly written, "Adele: The Biography" must be considered a 'must read' by her fans on both sides of the Atlantic!

Andy Jordan
Reviewer


Ann's Bookshelf

The Jewels of Paradise
Donna Leony
Random House
97804340222281, A$29.50

"Caterina Pellegrini is a young Venetian musicologist hired to find the truthful heir to an alleged treasure concealed by a once-famous baroque composer": "A gripping tale of Intrigue, Music and Obsession"

The publicity material for this book says that it is based on the true story of the composer Agostino Steffani - with "months and months of research" by author, Donna Leon, and musicologist, Cecilia Bartoli. Sadly, the months and months of research show through and most of this book consists of Dottoressa Caterina Pelligrini's far from gripping trawl through old documents, computer archives and obscure and complex history, larded with words and phrases in Venetian dialect, many of which cannot be found in an ordinary Italian-English dictionary.

If you are an academic researcher you may warm to the daily work of Dottoressa Pellegrini as she investigates the contents of two ancient chests which once belonged to Bishop/composer/possible castrato, Agostino Steffani.

If you love baroque music you may be interested by the discussions of well-known and lesser-known libretti, aria and musicology of a few famous and not-so-famous composers.

If you have visited Venice, you will probably recognize the various famous places Caterina walks past or mentions as she moves around the city from workplace to library (the Marciana) to her accommodation and the home of her parents. However, unless you have a map if Venice in front of you or a photographic memory of the City's labyrinth of narrow streets and canals, the street names mentioned in her very restricted peregrinations will mean little to you.

Each of the characters in the book is carefully described, but most of them remain as wooden and spot-lit as 'The Bears', which is Caterina's name for the family she sees once or twice through their lit kitchen window across the "calle" from her apartment. If you have never been to Venice and don't know what a "calle" is, you won't find it in the dictionary. A general computer search will tell you that it is Spanish for 'street' - but how it came to be part of the Venetian dialect I never discovered.

All of these things exemplify the problems I had with this book. Scattering foreign dialect words and phrases in a text does not provide local colour: it is just annoying, unless you know their meaning. Long descriptions of research techniques are boring and add nothing to the story. Caterina's learned musings on musicology are admirable but of passing interest; and her descriptions of complex historical intrigues involving kings, Electors, princesses, mistresses, churchmen and, possibly, Steffani are sometimes hard to follow.

The story itself is thin and relies on all these devices to bulk it out. There is one fleeting hint of danger; a passing suggestion of romance; and an ending which is anti-climatic, hedged, as it is, by Caterina's already hinted at questioning of the meaning of 'treasure'. The happy ending in the final paragraph is just trite.

Donna Leon is an American academic and writer who has travelled widely and is an expert on opera. She has lived in Venice for the past thirty years, and her series of detective stories featuring the Venetian Commissario Brunetti is well-loved and highly regarded. The cover of The Jewels of Paradise carries praise for her work from the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian but, as is common practice now, the praise is not for this book but for some earlier unspecified book or books. Sadly, The Jewels of Paradise is not deserving of such praise.

Questions of Travel
Michelle de Kretser
Allen & Unwin
81 Alexander St.
Crows Nest, NSW 2065, Australia
9781743311004, A$39.99

Why do we travel? What is travel? Is it tourism or migration; voluntary or necessary? Something driven by restlessness, curiosity, a desire to learn and see new things or the need to escape?

Michelle de Kretser's Questions of Travel tells the stories of two very different people: Laura, an Australian woman for whom travel has been an essential part of her life in many different ways; and Ravi, a Sri Lankan man who arrives in Australia as an asylum seeker after experiencing devastating events in his home country. De Kretser quotes a fragment of Elizabeth Bishop's poem, 'Questions of Travel', as a preface to her novel and, through the lives of Laura and Ravi, she explores many of the same questions. But for both Laura and Ravi, Elizabeth Bishop's final question - "Should we have stayed at home / Wherever that may be?" - is left unanswered.

Laura, inheriting money from an aunt who has filled her childhood with stories of far-off places, begins her travels in a very Australian way. In the 1980s, she drops out of art-school and sets off with her back-pack to Bali. It is part of de Kretser's skill that in just a few lines she can convey the common experience of first-time travelers. For Laura, the marvel that "This is Asia and I am in it" is accompanied by familiar Australian voices in the streets and bars, yet "It was nothing like home". Her experiences in Bali, too, are common, including her rapid attachment to the local family in whose home she stays and her resolve (never kept) to keep in touch with them.

From Bali, Laura travels through India and then to London, where she finds that every bridge embodies a sonnet, every monument is iconic, and everything is familiar. "That is what it means to be Australian", she concludes, "You come to London for the first time and discover what you already know". She rents cheap rooms, learns local customs, gets homesick on hearing an Australian voice in a crowd, and, "armed with a railway pass", she explores Europe. By the 1990s, she is back in London working as a waitress, then as a house-sitter. She makes friends and then takes over a friend's flat in Naples and lives there long enough to come to love it. For a while, work as a travel-writer keeps her on the move to many and varied places but, in 2000, she returns to Sydney and takes a job with the publishers of popular travel-guides.

Meanwhile, in interwoven chapters, we follow Ravi's life in Sri Lanka. We meet his family, his friends, his wife and his small son. We learn of his wife's work as a civil rights activist, and of the civil strife and atrocities which she reports. Michelle de Kretser lives in Sydney but she grew up in Sri Lanka and she conveys the culture, the delights and the tensions of that country simply, vividly and with great skill. So, too, does she convey Ravi's encounters with Australian culture and Australians whilst, from 2000 to 2004, he lives the uncertain life of an asylum seeker in Sydney: the casual rudeness of Sydneysiders ("Geddout the fuckin way, mate", from a jogger on a headland path); the generosity; the beauty of the place and the unfamiliar Australian passion for nature ("he got through bushwalking by looking forward to lunch"); the inter-State rivalries ("If you live more than thirty-minutes from the beach you might as well live in Melbourne"); and Ravi's amazement at the valuable things people throw out as garbage.

Ravi works first as an assistant in an aged-care home, then as an IT specialist at the same travel-guide publishing firm as Laura. Ravi and Laura do meet, but their lives are never close. Laura's many different relationships, friends and lovers are a natural and important part of her story. Ravi's encounters with Australian families, friends, neighbours and fellow workers are less close but equally absorbing. For both, the question "Why am I here?" crops up occasionally. For both, 'home' has different and often changing meanings.

Questions of Travel is a beautifully produced book and it comes wreathed in praise from writers such as Hilary Mantel and A.S. Byatt, and from reviewers for the USA's New Statesman, the Australian Sydney Morning Herald and the UK's Sunday Times. Not all the praise is for Questions of Travel but all attests to de Kretser's skill as an imaginative and accomplished writer of evocative prose which brings her characters to life and is full of suspense and psychological depth. I agree with all of this. Her ability to covey a vivid image in just a few words is enviable. I enjoyed Ravi's suburban vision of "novel galaxies" "Sleep World, Carpet World"; the familiarity of Laura's office environment "where only Windows opened" and "Twenty-three emails replying to the email about gym membership" have been copied to her; and her description (as a Sydenysider used to pounding surf) of the "mincing sea where Shelley drowned" in La Spezia in Italy. Occasionally de Kretser's images were so novel that they left me flummoxed. I have no idea what a gargoyle wearing "a cockroach veil" after a Sydney rainstorm looks like, but the "broken bodies of Umbrellas" exactly describes what I saw, not in Sydney as Laura did but in windswept Amsterdam.

Altogether, I found Michelle de Kretser's Questions of Travel to be an enjoyable, absorbing, well-written and thought-provoking book.

The One Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared
Jonas Jonasson
Allen & Unwin
81 Alexander St.
Crows Nest, NSW 2065, Australia
9781743311271, A$29.99

I should say from the start that I am not a laugh-out-loud reader of funny books. So, this book is not my usual sort of reading. However, Jonas Jonasson is a superb teller of tall tales; and enough people have found this book hilarious (so the publisher's blurb tells me) for it to have been translated into 35 languages. If that is so, then for those who appreciate bizarre stories it will be a delight.

The plot is, like the title, ingenious. Allan Karlsson is about to celebrate his 100th birthday in an Old Folks home in Sweden but he doesn't want a party. "The Mayor will be there. The press will be there. But, as it turns out, Allan will not..." As it turns out, too, Allan has never in his life done anything he didn't want to do. Not for long, anyway. So he climbs out of his bedroom window, heads for the local bus-station, buys himself a fifty-crown ticket on the next bus out and, taking a suitcase with him which has been left in his charge by a young man who urgently needed to use the rest-room, he rides off into the sunset (so to speak).

The suitcase, of course, turns out to be full of money. The owner turns out to be a member of a violent gang. Bad-tempered Director Alice at the Old Folks home has discovered that Allan is missing. And so the chase begins.

There are characters alive and (subsequently) dead, incompetent gangsters, thieves, ne'er-do-wells, baffled police, unexpected plot-twists.....and an elephant.

Woven into the plot is Allan's eventful life story. As a skilled demolitions expert (although not always a very careful one) he has travelled the world and amongst the important people he has met and befriended are President Truman, Mao Tse-tung, Stalin, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Kim Il Sung and Einstein and family (not necessarily in that order). He has also been actively involved in most of the history-making events of the twentieth century, including the Spanish Civil War and the Manhattan project.

Eventually, of course, the police catch up with Allan, his friends and the suitcase. But, master of tall stories that he is, Allan excels himself in sorting it all out. Even the elephant looks set to live happily ever-after.

Ingenious, cleverly done and fast-paced, this is a tall tale told by an expert story-teller.

The Misunderstanding
Irene Nemirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith
Random House
9780701186753, A$29.5

There is an old-fashioned style about this book. Not just because it was written in the 1920s and is set in France just after the First World War, but because Nemirovsky writes in a way which is more leisurely and descriptive than is customary now. Her character live at a more leisurely pace. Social status is more important and social conventions are more fixed. In spite of that, and in spite of the seeming sentimentality of the situation she depicts, Nemirovsky creates characters who are increasingly swayed by the harsh realities of life, her psychological perception is acute and her social irony is often sharp. She tells a simple story of an adulterous love affair and she tells it beautifully, but there are depths to this book which are still relevant today.

Her hero, Yves Harteloup was, she tells us, born in 1890 - "that divine, decadent era when there were still men in Paris who had absolutely nothing to do" . But all that has changed. Now, like many other men of his class, he has returned from the horrors of war, his parents have died, his inheritance has all but gone, and he leads the routine, dreary life of an employee. Having carefully saved enough money to take a holiday in a favourite Basque resort of his childhood, he meets and becomes infatuated with a young woman whose husband is still wealthy and who still leads a life of luxury and boredom. Denise, wants love, romance and excitement. She falls in love with Yves but their two lives, which once would have been very similar, are now very different and the expectations of each are different.

Yves, is a three-times decorated battle survivor and his war-time experiences have scarred him mentally as well as physically. He had once lived the life of a rich young man and had mistresses. Now he is disillusioned, afraid of intimacy, afraid of loss, and is living just within his means although he is still known and accepted in wealthy circles. He is infatuated with Denise, yet cannot give her the excitement and the constant reassurance of his love that she needs. Her demands begin to irritate him but he is upset when she is unhappy.

Denise, who is outgoing and talkative, cannot understand his need for peace and reassurance. She cannot understand why he will not commit himself and voice his love, and his silence baffles and upsets her. She is thoughtless about his office commitments and about his strained financial situation. But she is desperately unhappy when she cannot be with him.

Neither fully understands the needs of the other, and their different situations gradually pull them apart.

Irene Nemirovsky was only twenty-one when she wrote this book but she had already known fear, insecurity and the vast changes brought about by war. She was born in 1903 in Kiev, daughter of a successful Jewish banker. When she was fourteen her family fled from the Russian Revolution, first to Finland then, the following year, to Paris. They arrived there just at the end of the First World War. Irene studied at the Sorbonne and, at eighteen, she began to write novels. She went on to be widely recognized as a major writer but in 1940, with Paris under German Occupation, she was prevented from any further publishing. In 1942, she was arrested as a stateless person of Jewish descent and she subsequently died of typhus in Auschwitz.

Nemirovsky's books have only recently been translated from the French and The Misunderstanding, which was her first novel, displays the sharpness and perception which made her such a success. Above all, it captures the fragile and fleeting nature of happiness.

Ann Skea
Reviewer


Bethany's Bookshelf

The Adventures of Bic Calamus
Bic Calamus, author
Tin Wong and Carl Morgan, artwork
AuthorHouse
1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200
Bloomington, IN 47403-5161
9781477226704 $25.87 www.authorhouse.com

The Adventures of Bic Calamus is a wry black-and-white graphic novel about a would-be writer struggling with creative, financial, and mental health problems. Bic Calamus is the "pen name" of the main character (referring to a type of pen that is notoriously cheap and breaks easily). In the search to find himself and make ends meet, he taught English in Korea for a year, but when he returns home all the same old problems persist. He owes money to his gruff, begrudging father; his work on his prospective book ("Incomplete Memoirs of a Complete Breakdown") stutters along haphazardly; and visits to a trained psychiatrist seem to help little with his horrendously volatile and punishing mood swings, which can send him from elated to raging to tear-stricken in the course of minutes. His best friend is a drunk, and his most stable pastime is watching "Whirled News" on TV. The at times wild and evocative artwork skillfully captures Bic's fragile emotional state, yet off-the-wall humor peppered throughout this slice-of-life story keeps hope afloat amidst a sea of hardship. The result is a resonating and memorable saga about more than simple survival in tough economic times; The Adventures of Bic Calamus is also about finding the will to enjoy even the simplest things in life, when one's own mental state seems to be at constant odds with the world.

The Ups and Downs of Being Dead
M. R. Cornelius
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781477471630, $14.95, www.mrcornelius.com

No one wants to face death willingly. "The Ups and Downs of Being Dead" follows aging tycoon Robert Malone who faces death by cancer, and chooses cryonics to take a second chance at life. But it won't be a cold sleep, as Robert struggles with an in-between life in limbo and seeing the world from the outside, unable to interact. "The Ups and Downs of Being Dead" is a psychological and fun read that is hard to put down, recommended.

I Am Lucky Bird
Fleur Philips
New Dawn Publishers Ltd
9781908462046, $10.99, www.newdawnpublishersltd.co.uk

Cruel circumstances can leave the young under very cruel people. "I Am Lucky Bird" follows young Lucky Bird as she copes with the loss of her mother and left under an abusive grandmother and an even more abusive grandmother's lover. Faced with demons building inside of her, one light may allow her to break the cycle of abuse that others and herself have visited on her. A story of coming out of tragedy and conquering it, "I Am Lucky Bird" is a moving and recommended novel, not to be overlooked.

One More Dance
Evonne Stevenson Schott & Ed Rabinowitz
AuthorHouse
1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200
Bloomington, IN 47403-5161
9781468500660, $16.95, www.authorhouse.com

Cancer is terrifying, making every moment all the more precious. "One More Dance: One Family's Courageous Battle Against Time and Glioblastoma Brain Cancer" is a memoir from Evonne Stevenson Schott and Ed Rabinowitz as they tell the story of Evonne's husband Mike, as he endured a one month terminal cancer diagnosis to live a full year, telling the story of that year and how life was fully embraced in the process. "One More Dance" is a riveting read with plenty to consider about life and living, highly recommended.

Perfection Unleashed
Jade Kerrion
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781469980355, $9.99, www.jadekerrion.com

Perfection is what we strive for, and genetics may allow us to attain it. "Perfection Unleashed" is a distant future science fiction novel from Jade Kerrion, following Danyael Sabre, an alpha empath trying to piece together his life among the Genetic revolution, which is rapidly changing humanity, and may now be sending them to war. "Perfection Unleashed" asks many questions of human ethical biology and nature, solidly recommended reading.

Unveiling
Alianna J. Maren
Mourning Dove Press
9780982901304, $23.90, www.theunveilingjourney.com

We are the stars of our own lives, and it's time we started acting as such. "Unveiling: The Inner Journey" is an empowering memoir from Alianna J. Maren as she advises readers, in particular, women, to take control of their lives, guide to something worth unveiling to the world and allow ourselves to be pleased with our place in the world. "Unveiling" is a strong addition to general inspiration collections tailored to women, highly recommended.

A Bald Man With No Hair
John M. Keller
Dr. Cicero Books
9780615626420, $15.00, www.drcicerobooks.com

Why people do things is the great mystery we face and rarely have the answer to. "A Bald Man With No Hair" is a collection of short fiction from John M. Keller as he provides a collection of humorous and fun stories that seek to explore the bizarre nature of humanity and its drive to do things no one else will understand. "A Bald Man With No Hair" is strongly recommended for those seeking offbeat short fiction, highly recommended.

Death to Life
John J. Cobb
iUniverse, Inc.
c/o Author House
1663 Liberty Dr. Suite #300
Bloomington, IN 47403
9781475905359, $26.95, www.iuniverse.com

Faith gives us the power to overcome death. "Death to Life" is a Christian metaphysical read from John J. Cobb, who tackles the issues of faith and explores the ideas of life and death, and what God seeks from us as we live our lives seeking understanding of both and knowing God's word. "Death to Life" is a strong addition to metaphysical and spiritual collections, with much to ponder for the faithful unsure of what they need to seek for God's love and image.

Susan Bethany
Reviewer


Buhle's Bookshelf

Savannah Shadows
Tobias McGriff
Blue Orb Publishing
c/o Sgarlat Publicity
www.sgarlatpublicity.com
9780979252303, $19.95, www.blueorbtours.com

What lies in the darkness isn't known and leaves us in terror. "Savannah Shadows: Tales from the Midnight Zombie Tour" is a collection of true tours and stories surrounding Savannah, Georgia, known to be the most haunted city in America, as Tobias McGriff gives readers a spookier exploration of the unknowns of the city, its history, as well as tours that may be off the beaten path of Savannah's Zombie tourism attractions. "Savannah Shadows" is an enticing read for anyone fascinated with the paranormal and may be visiting the Georgian city soon, highly recommended.

Born in Rio
Cassia Martins
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781466441798, $17.50, www.borninrio.com

Our parents often hold secrets about us that we never know until it's too late. "Born In Rio" is a novel following middle aged Rita, who discovers her origins from her mother who gave so much to her. Weighted by her current life, she breaks from it to find out what her mother held in her pass, and learns much about life and sees what her mother left behind in Brazil. "Born In Rio" is a strong pick for contemporary fiction collections.

Searching for Myself
Emma Condurache
Balboa Press
c/o Author House
1663 Liberty Dr. Suite #300
Bloomington, IN 47403
9781452550435, $28.95, www.balboapress.com

Love for ourselves, love for others is what we need to feel fulfilled. "Searching for Myself" is a motivational memoir from Emma Condurache as she shares her journey to finding herself and her inspiration through it all, finding a mother she never knew she had and learning much about herself as a woman and as a daughter. A remarkable and uplifting tale not to be missed, "Searching for Myself" is a strong read, not to be overlooked.

Park Songs
David Budbill
Exterminating Angel Press
9781935259169, $14.95, www.exterminatingangel.com

Poetry can sing our deepest woes, and our grandest joy. "Park Songs" is a collection of poetry that seeks to tell a story from David Budbill as he crafts a unique story with verse to tell of a community learning much about life, and the people who move it all along. With plenty to ponder about life and much more, "Park Songs" is a must for lovers of poetry and those seeking something done different with the format.

Shades of Murder
Lauren Carr
Acorn Book Services
9780985726706, $14.99

Being favored by the rich and powerful often has its own drawbacks. "Shades of Murder" is another Mac Faraday mystery from Lauren Carr as she follows Mac as he finds himself in the accusations of murder surrounding an invaluable piece of art, and with him looking to gain a lot, the evidence against him builds. A riveting mystery with plenty of twists and turns, "Shades of Murder" is very much recommended reading, not to be missed.

The Kronos Interference
Edward Miller & J. B. Manas
Pop Culture Zoo Press
9780615651620, $12.99, www.popculturezoopress.com

Killing Hitler if you had a time machine is often spitballed as a possibility...but what if you did just that? "The Kronos Interference" follows physicist Jacob Newman as he finds the methods of time travel in front of him. Driven by a family's past, he travels to long ago and ends the future dictator's life in 1924. Returning to the present, he sees the results are catastrophic, and their are forces all around that make time travel a very dangerous thing. "The Kronos Interference" is a strong addition to general fiction collections, highly recommended reading.

Extreme Betrayal
Sean B. Fraser
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781450561570, $16.95, www.seanbfraser.com

A bright starry eyed career can turn dark fast. "Extreme Betrayal" is a thriller from Sean B. Fraser as he follows Sarah Mitchell, an American accountant trying to piece together her sudden shift in job as she gets dragged into a deeper conspiracy that may threaten her potential and her life as she must reclaim her stolen identity from organized crime and international intrigue. "Extreme Betrayal" is a strong addition to general fiction collections.

One Last Lie
Rob Kaufman
Privately Published
9780985623111, $14.99, www.amazon.com

Parenthood often eludes many gay couples, and the introduction of a third to carry the child carries its own threats. "One Last Lie" is a novel of gay romance as Philip and Jonathan have everything they want from life except a child. Inviting an old friend Angela into their lives to carry their child, the story takes a toll on all involved. Marked by sharp twists and turns, "One Last Lie" is a strong pick for those seeking contemporary gay fiction.

A Capacity of Vice
Taylor Saint-Savage
Privately Published
9780985576301, $14.95, www.saint-savage.com

Disillusioned with the world, we are still compelled to do good, for whatever value good is. "A Capacity of Vice" is a work of noir thriller from Taylor Saint-Savage telling of two troubled people facing a corrupt world, the people they square off against, and their collision course against each other and the world that scorned them. A riveting twist of fiction, "A Capacity of Vice" is quite the page turner for those who like the noir theme, highly recommended.

Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer


Burroughs' Bookshelf

Transform Mind And Body With The Lap-Band
Lisa Gentile
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781456528003, $12.95, www.amazon.com

A 'Lap-Band' is a laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding. "Transform Mind and Body with the Lap-Band" by Lisa Gentile is a 110-page compendium that provides simple, yet effectively precise techniques for properly utilizing the Lap-Band surgical tool as a means of successfully achieving a long-term healthy weight. The Lap-Band not only places physical restriction on the stomach to help limit caloric consumption, but this amazing tool also has the ability to diminish hunger by stimulating nerves that govern satiety. Through the use of this educational manual, readers will gain expertise knowledge related to the many distinctive features of the Lap-Band including how the procedure works effectively, as well as, preparation in all nutritional, behavioral and emotional aspects both before surgery and during each step on this post-banded journey towards managing a healthy and empowering new body weight. The multidisciplinary, holistic approach outlined within this manual is both enlightening and inspirational. "Transform Mind And Body With The Lap-Band" is especially recommended reading for anyone who has found such weight reduction resources as Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers to be ineffective and are seeking a possible alternative to dealing effectively with their obesity.

Ten Days to Madness
James R. Clifford
J.R. Rutherford Books
9780615589626, $12.00, www.amazon.com

Everyone keeps secrets, and those secrets can pile up for generations. "Ten Days to Madness" is a novel following Charlie Parker, a man coping with everything he knows and loves beginning to turn against him as he tries to piece together his life. He finds riches may be in his grasp, but he will have to go against the stolen Cherokee gold that his ancestors took...and the spirits who aren't too pleased at the meddling. "Ten Days to Madness" is an intriguing twist of psychological fiction, highly recommended reading.

Dakota Odysseus
Sam W. McQuade
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781470063986, $18.95, www.amazon.com

A life on the road is a life seeing a little bit of everything in the process. "Dakota Odysseus: At Home and Abroad" is a memoir of travel through the world, as the North Dakotan boy wanders the world and shares his experiences throughout both Americas and Europe and presents much to ponder about life and living in the process throughout the world. Enticing with plenty of humor to be considered, "Dakota Odysseus" is a fine pick for travel memoir readers and collections, recommended.

First
Lester Nuby Jr.
iUniverse, Inc.
c/o Author House
1663 Liberty Dr. Suite #300
Bloomington, IN 47403
9781475929263, $29.95, www.iuniverse.com

The sons of the poor all too often remain as such. "First: Breaking Generational Poverty" is a memoir from Lester Nuby as he recounts his own successes in breaking through the weight of generational poverty in his family, trying to find what opportunities he could, and gaining enough to be worth millions before he was seventy five. A rags to riches story, "First: Breaking Generational Poverty" is worth considering for those seeking an inspirational tale, highly recommended.

Practicing the Presence of Jesus
Wally Armstrong
Summerside Press
9781609367022, $12.99, www.sumersidepress.com

Sometimes remembering Jesus's presence proves hard. "Practicing the Presence of Jesus: Experience the Gift of His Friendship" is a Christian memoir as Wally Armstrong shares his own journey to realizing Jesus's presence in his life, noting his friendship and grace were with him. Drawing on the personal experience of his journeys through the world of professional golf, "Practicing the Presence of Jesus" is a strong pick Christian inspirational collections, recommended.

Take off Your Hat and Spit Out Your Gum
Melinda Ehrlich
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781463696597, $15.95, www.melindaehrlich.com

Education is a noble career, but it often carries its own challenges. "Take Off Your Hat and Spit Out Your Gum" is a memoir from Melinda Ehrlich as she recounts her career as a teacher and the intriguing characters she met over the years from students to administrators and everything else in between. With plenty of humor and practical advice for a teacher's success, "Take Off Your Hat and Spit Out Your Gum" is a strong addition to memoir and education collections, recommended.

But By the Chance of War
Richard C. Lyons
Lylea Creative Resources
c/o Lissy Peace & Associates LTD (publicity)
9780615532059, $26.95, www.atlasbooks.com

The epic poem is still a way to tell a story. "But By the Chance of War" is a collection of epic poems from Richard C. Lyons who used the neglected method to craft tales of many conflicts of international wars, the world at war, and other topics, ranging over from the past few centuries to the modern day. Intriguing and an original twist of the style, "But By Chance of War" is well worth considering for fans of quality poetry, highly recommended.

Awake in the Mad World
Damon Ferrell Marbut
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9780985545208, $14.99, www.createspace.com

Life has many awakenings to truth, and our road to understanding them may be terrifying. "Awake in the Mad World" is a novel as Damon Ferrell Marbut creates a novel following Pete Rattigan as he faces this realization of the world as a newspaper journalist trying to get by and finding his true path through life is all the more complicated. "Awake in the Mad World" is a strong pick for those seeking a novel of facing the real world, recommended.

The Stolen Kingdom
Ross Rosenfeld
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9780615581378, $9.99, www.amazon.com

The challenges of youth are many. "The Stolen Kingdom" is a young adult fantasy from Ross Rosenfeld as he creates a fantasy of Taylor and Robert must face off against a nebulous Duke who is out to steal their kingdom, facing many nasty creatures all along the way. "The Stolen Kingdom" is a strong addition to youth fantasy collections, recommended.

John Burroughs
Reviewer


Carson's Bookshelf

Pi - The Great Work
Marty Leeds
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com www.martyleeds33.com
9781466497481, $14.99, www.amazon.com

Historically speaking, in a great many cultures there was considered to be a kind of magic in certain numbers and arithmetical sequences. Marty Leeds has dedicated himself to an exploration of Pi within frames of reference that span anthropology, archaeology, alchemy, spirituality, religion, science, astronomy, astrology, numerology, linguistics, symbolism, folklore, music, riddle and rhyme in "Pi - The Great Work", a profusely illustrated, 110 page compendium representing seminal studies in the subject. An iconic exploration of sacred number, geometry and the mathematics composing the fundamental structure of the universe "Pi - The Great Work" is especially recommended for personal, professional, and academic library Metaphysical Studies and Mathematical Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists. Also very highly recommended is Marty Leeds other major and related work: "Pi & The English Alphabet" (9781478376637, $14.99).

Quiet Horizon
Greg Jemsek
Trafford Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
9781426911279 $24.95 www.trafford.com

A winner of the International Book Awards, Quiet Horizon: Releasing Ideology and Embracing Self-Knowledge is a self-help guide to achieving heightened awareness, and reclaiming authority over one's own life, with an emphasis on "Transformation, not Transcendence" and other realistic goals in line with human nature and humankind's history. "No one is permanently enlightened. Every person inevitably returns to the ego structure he had before such experiences, despite the allure of terms such as 'salvation,' or 'moksha.' Followers of gurus and fundamentalists will argue against this, claiming their leader has done something permanent. This is nothing other than the logical conclusion of puritanism and other utopian systems: the false belief that perfection is attainable." Ground firmly in the practical here-and-now rather than lofty and all-too-fallible ideology, Quiet Horizon is a serious-minded aid to answering the age-old query, "Who am I?"

Clueless
Mary L. Clark Baier
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781475226096, $13.95, www.amazon.com

Office culture is often confusing, even for those who have been at it for years. "Clueless: A Guide to Modern & Professional Office Etiquette" is a guide to the unusual corporate and company driven world of what people expect at all levels of business and potentials of personal success. With a touch of humor and plenty of practical advice, "Clueless" is a read much worth considering.

Dear Jawaher
Mona Al-Hajjaj
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781463669621, $27.00, www.createspace.com

When you flee to a whole new country to survive, you have a story to share. "Dear Jawaher" is a memoir from Mona Al-Hajjaj, as she directs her story to her daughter as she shares her struggles as a Middle Eastern woman who became a refugee in America, her tales of terror, and how she got through it all with a bit of ingenuity and tenacity. "Dear Jawaher" is a touching read with a strong message, recommended.

High Treason
Alberto Ambard & Amelia Mondragon
VBW Publishing
PO Box 9949, College Station, TX 77842
9781621370468, $17.95, www.virtualbookworm.com

Rapid change of society doesn't always sit well with everyone involved. "High Treason" is a novel of a thwarted assassination attempt on the Venezuelan president, and how one of the men who committed the attempt tells his story of why it came to trying to strike down their country's leader. A story of personal struggle and drive, "High Treason" blends the tough issues of Venezuela with the thriller aspects that such acts may call for, making for an enticing read.

Listening to Rain
Albert A. Dalia
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781469901862, $13.17, www.aadalia.com

China is broken by civil war, and the Emperor has empowered two to stop it from breaking further before it can be put back together. "Listening to Rain" is a novel of medieval China, as Tanzong and Li Wei travel south in the aboriginal lands to broker a peace and the other warlords of the region. Drawing on Chinese history and Tang dynasty culture, "Listening to Rain" is a choice and much recommended pick for fans of the setting and historical fiction with a tinge of fantasy, recommended.

Dare to Care
Cheryl Carmichael
iUniverse
c/o AuthorHouse
1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200
Bloomington, IN 47403-5161
9781462031467, $14.95, www.authorhouse.com

Caring for one's parents is a task more and more youths take on. "Dare to Care: Caring for Our Elders" is a guide for new caretakers on how to deal with our increasingly aging population, leaving young people charged with how to better care for their parents and meeting their needs that come along with age with many situations. "Dare to Care" is a strong addition to any collection focusing on senior care and caretaking in general, highly recommended.

The Never Fable
Steven Brandsdorfer
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781469904238, $12.99, www.amazon.com

An unstable mind leaves one in a life of haze and fog. "The Never Fable" is a novel of dealing with mental illness from Steven Brandsdorfer, following Daniel Never, faced with severe head trauma who tries to piece together his life as best as he can understand it as he wanders through Manhattan, far from home. With a touch of humor, the introspective adventures of Daniel provide a poignant look at the struggles of mental illness and the drive to heal. "The Never Fable" is a fine pick for general fiction collections, not to be missed.

Business Professionalism
Bruce Todd Strom
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781475017281, $14.99, www.amazon.com

Carrying oneself well can go far in improving one's business success. "Business Professionalism" is an advisory guide for those who want to succeed in the modern business world and culture, defining professionalism and how to better embrace it and improve one's chances for business success on many levels. "Business Professionalism" is a strong addition to general business and careers collections, highly recommended.

Michael J. Carson
Reviewer


Christy's Bookshelf

Conversations at the Party
Randall Brooks
PublishAmerica
PO Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705-0151
9781451279191, $24.95, www.publishamerica.com

We've all heard the term slash flick, well call this collection of short stories slash fic. The author's claim that this book is a "tour of the twisted, the macabre, the psychologically deranged, erotic and perverse" is rightly proven by the short stories contained within the book. Brooks touches upon most of the seven deadly sins and adds a few more of his own, providing readers with stories filled with twists and turns and unexpected endings. Not for the faint of heart, the stories are graphic and filled with violence but provide for stimulating reading. Readers who like authors who write "outside the box" and aren't afraid to embrace a darker world and travel beyond the norm will enjoy Brooks. The movies have producer/director Quentin Tarantino, who is touted as one of the most distinctive and volatile talents to emerge in the film industry. Now the literary world has Randall Brooks.

From Here to Absurdity
David Hunter
Oconee Spirit Press LLC
9780983004011, $15.00, www.oconeespirit.com

Author David Hunter is not only known for his well-written mysteries but also for the adroit humor he weaves into his nonfiction works. In "From Here to Absurdity: Pink Flamingos, Vibrators and Other Comical Events", he explores the absurd, from the history of vibrators to the rise of the ribbon people to the influx of the pink flamingo and a whole plethora of subjects in between. Fans will be pleased that Hunter shares stories from his days as a police officer, much coveted by his readers, as well as a peek into his personal life. What better read than one that offers a bit of the absurd wrapped around history, presented in a fun, humorous style.

Insight
Polly Iyer
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781468141740, $13.50, www.amazon.com

Psychologist Abigael Gallant, left blind by her husband's bullet after he killed their daughter and subsequently himself, has worked hard to get her life back on track. Abigael makes an effort to live as normal a life as possible and is becoming well-respected as a psychologist who specializes in treating the newly disabled. When Detective Luke McCallister steps into her office, Abigael hopes to help him deal with his recent deafness while trying to ignore the chemistry between the two of them.

Luke, who is adept at lip reading, ignores Abby's admonitions against a romantic relationship while refusing to acknowledge his condition will permanently affect his job and lifestyle. When Abigael is threatened and subsequently attacked then kidnapped, Luke steps into the role of cop and is determined to protect her but more times than not finds his deafness a problem in keeping the woman he loves alive. Luke realizes he must find a way to deal with his handicap while using the instincts and skills that made him a good cop.

Although this sort of mystery has been done before (i.e., threatened woman, heroic cop), Polly Iyer adds a unique flavor by pairing a blind woman and deaf man and making it work. The plot moves at a quick pace and Abigael and Luke are likeable characters. Iyer relays the world of the blind and the deaf in a realistic way, allowing their frustrations with their inabilities to shine through while showing their world can be very close to normal.

Christy Tillery French, Reviewer
www.about.me/christytilleryfrench


Clark's Bookshelf

John Quincy Adams
Harlow Giles Unger
Da Capo Press
c/o Perseus Books Group
11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
www.perseusbooksgroup.com
9780306821285, $27.50, www.amazon.com

Election time brings forth candidates who are striving to lead the great nation of ours. The past elections of recent years are very familiar to many and the presidents who served are well known, but when a book about the sixth president of the United States emerges, we should stop and take notice. Harlow Giles Unger has written a magnificent book, which chronicles the life and career of "John Quincy Adams" a scholar who became President.

John Quincy Adams father, John Adams who was the second president that served a four-year term while his son John Quincy served the nation in various roles as a minister to six European countries, a Congressman for sixteen years, and of course the presidency.

John Quincy was brilliant and had a great facility for foreign languages, which made him extremely welcome on foreign soil. He conversed in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and various other languages. A graduate of Harvard and was a lawyer as well. He followed example of his illustrious father who also had been a lawyer. During his formative years, his mother Abigail Adams was instrumental in his educational development and his family reared him to be religious so that he would not bring any shame upon the Adam's name.

Harlow Unger has researched this book in his inimical style of being correct with regard to his references. This book is footnoted and refers to many of the correspondences which were between John Quincy and both his mother and father. John Quincy Adams also wrote a diary that was about 14,000 pages. He started this diary when he was 10 years old and continued through his adulthood. Life during this era of the late 1700's and early 1800's comes to life because of these notations.

Authors gain respect for their work when both scholars and the public accept their books. Harlow Giles Unger has written 20 books, including six biographies of America's Founding Fathers. His most recent books include "The Last Founding Father," Lion of Liberty," and "American Tempest."

Many of the conflicts that faced our nation during the period, in which John Quincy Adams was president, are still facing our nation today. Though the magnitude was not as extreme, there were financial difficulties, questions about Federal Taxation, and the conflict that arose in the Electoral College. Relations with foreign countries like France and England created animosity between different factions here in the United States who supported either one or the other. Diplomacy was a key element in solving disputes and John Quincy Adams was a masterful diplomat.

Intrigue played a role in the relations between our United States and France. It continued from John Adams time to the time of John Quincy Adams. Additionally highlighted was John Quincy Adams' advocacy of freedom! He attempted to have Congress free slaves 4 years before the emancipation proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. An interesting fact is that he served in Congress again after having been president!

This is a five star book and one for the young scholar in your family whilst in high school or college.

The Death Relic
Chris Kuzneski
G. P. Putnam's Sons
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
www.penguin.com
9780399158995, $26.95, www.amazon.com

Prolific writers with characters who enthrall create a following of readers who look forward to the next adventure with mouths watering as if they were about to eat a tasty morsel. Chris Kuzneski is such an author. "The Death Relic" which will be hitting the bookstores on January 10 is such a novel. Chris Kuzneski is a best-selling author who has written "The Secret Crown" and "The Prophecy", "The Lost Throne," "Sword of God," and "The Plantation."

"The Death Relic" takes place in Mexico and traverses the Yucatan, Mexico City, and Acapulco. Main characters are Payne and Jones, both former members of an elite military squad known as the MANIACS. These two adventurers' exploits would make a super hero cringe as they manage to take charge of dangerous situations making them turn out in their favor. This novel is no different from what they faced in previous tales of their undertakings.

One of the unique abilities that Kuzneski has is reviving characters from previous novels and tying them together in a new scenario. Maria Pelati who was in previous encounters with Payne and Jones calls upon them to help her in Cancun after her prospective new employer Terrence Hamilton disappears right after they had just met! He had gone out to his car to get some papers to show her and never returned. Maria returned to her hotel suite and found it very askew. Even her passport was missing. Fear for her safety causes her to call Payne and Jones for help. They respond and join her by flying to Cancun from Pennsylvania.

Other characters emerge throughout this tense story who play important roles in the drama, some are old friends and others foes. There is much excitement as some seemingly disconnected events take place, but through the skillfulness of Kuzneski's writing, they unfold to connect the dots as this page-turner moves forward.

Historical references abound and some of the explanations about the disappearance of the Mayan civilization delve into the body of this novel. Travel among the ruins is with accuracy. Insight as to Mayan temples and their use for sacrifices is with candor. Societies which existed in the 1500s, both Mayan and Aztecs and their relationships are explored. European explorers, church historical figures, and modern day events blend to an electrifying conclusion.

Demonstrating the skill of Payne and Jones in their adventures without overshadowing others in their roles is the sign of an author who has command of the storyline. In "The Death Relic", each of the players has a part even if that part is for good or evil. There is no confusion as to who the good guys are, Payne and Jones, of course.

This is a five-star adult book because of language, murder, and innuendo, which is highly recommended!

Meltdown
Francis Hamit
Brass Cannon Books
97815955954008, $21.00

Unfolding events draw a reader into a thriller. Unfolding slowly in the beginning to build a climaxing crescendo is "Meltdown" by Francis Hamit. Experienced writers have this uncanny ability to pique your interest and move you along without your realizing that you are going on a journey led by a masterful storyteller.

Francis Hamit wrote two other novels, which are well accepted "The Shenandoah Spy" and "The Queen of Washington." These books are historical novels. "Meltdown" is what the author says is an "alternative reality" calling attention events that might take place if there is a failure to take adequate precautions.

Two main characters are highlighting this compelling novel. One is a new security chief who takes over the function of leading guards and others in the care of keeping intruders out of a nuclear power plant. The other is an erstwhile engineer who works in the maintenance of the facility and directing safe operating procedures. Each of these people is very different and who have their own lives. Their connection is in the running of the plant. Each has their own separate agenda to prove their ability. Hamit superbly portrays their interplay with management who run the nuclear reactor.

Since the author has a background in security and having been involved with nuclear power plants, he uses jargon from real events. Learning about the training of the guards, the past military careers each had prior to being a guard and the continuation of preparedness play an important role in keeping intruders at bay. There are intruders who attack with a ruthless plan to call attention to the inadequate safety of nuclear power reactors. Making an example of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island disasters is the goal of militia comprised of a rag-tag group of misguided deviants of society.

Jimmy Berger, the engineer, has an interesting role. He is able to fix just about anything pertaining to the facility. A graduate engineer who prefers to still wear a ponytail, have a beard, and not wear a tie is not what he appears at the start of the book. He demonstrates he is a true patriot who really cares about the job. As the story unfolds, his abilities and concern about community readers will recognize he is a likeable fellow!

Her energy company was clamping down on unnecessary spending at their nuclear power facility and so they sent Maria Lockhart as the new security chief. Her boss was suspect of misappropriations going on at the power plant. She was primarily to be a bean counter and cut back on costs. She developed into a well-respected hero of the management team by her leading the security forces in combating intruders.

This is a five star book, extremely well written, entertaining, informative, and definitely an adult novel because of its graphic descriptions and some sexual overtones, which added to the story.

Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth
Mika Brzezinski
Weinstein Books
345 Hudson Street, 13th floor
New York, NY 10014
www.weinsteinbooks.com
9781602861602, $15.00, www.amazon.com

Men and women in the business world each have uniquely different skills when it comes to asking for a raise in salary. Culture, background, and self-worth play into how each gender will ask for a raise. Mika Brzezinski in her recently published book "Knowing Your Value" relies upon other women in the business world to give their opinions on how to succeed in obtaining more money, better contracts with better perks, and establishing women as equals in the market place.

This is a well written, clear, and definitely a worthwhile aid for women to achieve that well-worn phrase "show me the money." Mika is a co-host on the show "Morning Joe" where she shares the stage with Joe Scarborough in their discussion of issues and meeting with celebrities.

One of the outstanding features that Mika presents is her ability to recognize her failings in negotiations with her bosses at the MSNBC and not earning enough money to compensate her fairly for the 15-hour days she is working. It was not as if they were paying a minimum wage for her efforts, but she felt that she could be earning more.

What Mika found was the glass ceiling was holding her back. As a woman, she found herself at a disadvantage by the management playing her heartstrings as a woman. Mika was told by another woman mid-management representative to be happy with what she was earning and frankly that it was more important to be "liked" than it was to make waves by asking for more money.

Mika has discussions with many women, Chief Operating Officers and other executives throughout the book on various topics relating to relationship in business to the crucial aspect of how to ask for more money and earning what you are worth. This advice is not only useful for women, but men as well. Men and women have different levels of success not only due to abilities, but also due to perceived limits on being able to do the job.

Family and child rearing obligations in some companies limit the ability of the working woman to achieve parity in income with men. Interestingly, Mika discusses that in some companies the relationship with the family and children is a top priority to a happy worker and they have found it enhances the company and the worker providing a win-win situation.

Another interesting side note was how Mika's attitude to her co-host Joe changed. She had discovered Joe had been earning income far greater than she was because of the way he had his contract negotiated. When Joe realized she was upset about the disparity of income, he gave her some of his bonus money to make her happy. Mika became upset and felt that MSNBC should have raised her income, not Joe sharing his with her. However, the difference was when Joe explained to her he knew her value as a co-host and until negotiations could take place with the company, he felt it was a worthwhile investment, which would benefit him in the end by having her stay on the show. He told her he was being selfish. When she realized this, all was rosy once again.

This is an excellent 5-star book, which can enhance your career, and that is why you should read it!

The Healing Remedies Sourcebook
C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD
Da Capo Press
c/o Perseus Books Group
11 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
www.perseusbooksgroup.com
9780738215914, $25.99, www.amazon.com

An old axiom "physician heal thyself," is as useful today as it was when it was coined so many ages ago. The holistic approach to medicine is the methodology where using many common natural items are used to solve many of the body's ailments without a trip to the local emergency room or pharmacy. Dr. Norman Shealy wrote this book, which contains historical references to the various cultures and how they have treated maladies for hundreds of years.

Dr. Shealy is the founder of the American Holistic Medicine Association and a world-renowned neurosurgeon. He is the author of "The Complete Family Guide to Natural Home Remedies" and "The Self-Healing Workbook."

Divided into Part 1 and Part 2, this book gives an introduction to Ayurveda, Chinese Herbal Medicine, and Traditional Home and Folk Remedies in Part 1. In Part 2, there are treatments for common ailments. Under the treatment section are alternative types of treatments for those discussed in Part 1. This may sound a bit confusing, but the approaches for the different methods are varied.

"Ayurvedic medicine is the traditional system of medicine practiced in India and Sri Lanka. Like traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda is a complete system of healthcare, designed to contribute to a way of life, rather than an occasional treatment," according to Dr. Shealy.

Other treatments, which are discussed, include Herbalism, Aromatherapy, Homeopathy, Flower Remedies, and Vitamins. These are easy to follow and in Part 2 their use is more fully explained.

The very last part of the book discusses First Aid and how to treat using one of the methods discussed in Part 1. An example is how to treat blisters! Under the Ayurveda method, Aloe Vera juice is applied to the blister to help it heal. Under Traditional Home and Folk Remedies; "boiled and mashed carrots can be applied to help heal the area, and this is good for infection," there are some other methods under this section. Using Herbalism, "Aloe Vera can be applied to the blister to help it heal." There are also additional methods listed for Aromatherapy, Homeopathy, and Flower Essences.

One of the best ideas advanced by Dr. Shealy is to see a doctor when the relief tried in various sections is not effective. Simply stated is some illnesses are not what they appear to be. A blister, which mysteriously appears without injury, could have other causations. A blister, which becomes infected, could be very painful and inflamed.

During these difficult economic times, it is a good idea to do as much as we possibly can without incurring expense for some injuries, which we can treat ourselves. This book is excellent and provides many remedies under various theories of treatment. However, remember that you can obtain a lot of information from the internet or the public library. When you are in your local pharmacy or health food store clerks can also guide you to some very reasonable methods of treatment that work! This is a three star book, but might be a welcome addition to your library at home if you use it!

Clark Isaacs
Reviewer


Crocco's Bookshelf

Second Chance Grill
Christine Nolfi
Amazon Digital Services, Inc
B009Y4ZSFK, $2.99, www.amazon.com

A small town community goes viral.

The town is Liberty, Ohio and the setting is Second Chance Grill. The Grill has a new owner, Dr. Mary Chance, who inherits the restaurant, and is determined to turn it into a success in about a year.

Being a doctor, Mary is a fish out of water running a restaurant. But the inheritance coincided with a tragedy. Mary lost her best friend where she lived and worked in Cincinnati. In trying to deal with her grief she takes a sabbatical and decides to go to Liberty to run Second Chance Grill.

Mary's plans are to return to Cincinnati, in about a year, to take over a clinic, however, she falls in love - not once, but twice - first with Blossom, a spunky eleven year old cancer survivor, and then with Blossom's father, Anthony.

Blossom is one month shy of being cancer free, when her leukemia returns. What does Dr. Mary Chance do when Anthony's health insurance doesn't cover a bone marrow transplant? What does the small town community of Liberty do to help? What plan do the extraordinary women of Second Chance Grill devise?

What a treat Christine Nolfi's readers are in store for! It is great fun to meet up with all the extraordinary women of Second Chance Grill.

Christine Nolfi writes this captivating story, Second Chance Grill, applying her expertise writing brilliance. Her characters are all unique and we care about each one of them. No one is perfect in Liberty, Ohio, especially at Second Chance Grill. But everyone deserves a second chance.

Libertas Americana
J.R. Ortiz
American Amaranth, LLC
c/o Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
B009MNEY26, $9.99, www.amazon.com

Libertas Americana by J.R. Ortiz is Book Two of the American Amaranth Anthology. Libertas Americana takes place in the year 2017. A terrorist plot against the United States by fascist militants needs to be prevented. Julius and Michael Stansfield are once again called upon by the CIA to stop the terrorists.

The two brothers, along with other freedom fighters, risk their lives to keep America's homeland safe from Russian extremists. Their mission is to sink a Russian freighter into the Rhine and kill the men whose plans are to hurt Americans. The mission is called - Operation Europa.

As J.R. Ortiz takes his readers through the horror of this terrorist plot, he also integrates the family life of Julius and Michael Stansfield. Learning why they accept missions that constantly put the two brothers at such high risk of losing their lives is explained as nothing more than a desire to keep America free. They are fully aware each mission may be their last, but because of deep concepts of patriotism, loyalty to America comes before family. They feel it is for their family, that they risk their life. To Michael and Julius it is how they proof endless love for their family, and every other family in America.

This Little Piggy
Craig McGray
Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
B00771MF1C, $0.99, www.amazon.com

Eleven pages; a perfect nightmare

A short story that will haunt you for much longer than you'd desire. This is not the genre I read, but when I saw it was only eleven pages, I thought, why not? I wish I had put more thought into that hasty and regrettable decision.

This Little Piggy is a disturbing, disgusting story, to say the least. But as it was my choice to read it, I will review it on its literary merits.

It had a certain middle school age quality to it. With that in mind, it was well written.

The ending was unpredictable, which I always appreciate in any story or book.

This is a popular genre, but I have learned my lesson, eleven pages or not.

The Dead-Simple Guides 3-Pack: 3 Great Guides In One!
Nick Thacker
Turtleshell Press
c/o Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
B009GAH2CY, $4.99, www.amazon.com

To improve your blog - to make it efficient and productive, this 3 pack guide provides an excellent source of information.

The first book is titled, Amazing Headlines, the second; Guest Posts, and the third; Pillar Content.

All throughout the books, Nick Thacker includes numerous links to expand the information he has provided.

Since I read this on my Kindle, I think a printed version of the books would be beneficial while applying the suggestions in the guide.

A Parachute in the Lime Tree
Annemarie Neary
History Press
50 City Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland
http://www.thehistorypress.ie
1845887328, $5.99 (Kindle Edition)

A Parachute in the Lime Tree is about four characters whose lives are deeply affected by WWII: Oskar, Elsa, Charlie, and Kitty. The war stifles love affairs, as any war does. Once again there is a couple who are separated because one is German, Oskar, and the other is Jewish, Elsa. Kitty finds Oskar, the man in a parachute in her lime tree, captivating, but his goal is to locate Elsa, who is in Ireland. He isn't successful and lives his life without her. Charlie, a medical student, ends up marrying Elsa.

Each character has a different point of view regarding the war. Even though Ireland took a neutral stance in the war, Oskar, Elsa, Charlie, and Kitty did not think neutrality. The opinions and feelings of the characters are learned by sharing in their daily lives. A Parachute in the Lime Tree is a perfect and entertaining way to learn the history of WWII, with the emphasis in Ireland.

I experienced a difficult time reading the first few chapters, although the separations aren't labeled as chapters. It took time to become comfortable because the narratives kept changing, followed by numerous alternating characters. I viewed it as a good challenge to sort through as I continued reading. By the end of the book I had mastered Annemarie Neary's writing style.

The ending is unpredictable, which I appreciate the most. The descriptions are vivid and I pictured each historical setting as I read A Parachute in the Lime Tree. Annemarie Neary integrates love, suspense, and humor in her well researched novel.

As an aspiring writer, I am going to reread A Parachute in the Lime Tree by Annemarie Neary, because her style was unique and at times a challenge. I know I can benefit from reading different writing styles.

Readers of all ages who want to learn the history of WWII will enjoy this historical novel.

Tangled Ashes
Michele Phoenix
Tyndale House Publishers
351 Executive Drive, Carol Stream, IL 60188
www.tyndale.com
1414368402, $12.99, www.amazon.com

A Castle and WWII

The castle is the Meunier Manor during the Nazi occupation of France. Hitler turns the manor into his maternity ward to breed. Introduced are two teenage girls who work there and these characters enlighten readers to the daily events happening in the manor.

Fifty years later - the castle becomes a Renaissance castle, to be renovated in the city of Lamorlaye, France.

Michele Phoenix writes her historical novel with first-hand knowledge as she is from France. Her attention to details is much appreciated when reading a work of historical fiction.

Marshall Becker, from America, is the architect hired to renovate the castle. He arrives with expertise, but carries a bus load of 'baggage'. Throughout the story, his character flaws are painfully visible, but we don't get to fully understand him.

Becker's relationships with his partner in America, the owner of the castle, the nanny who takes care of the owner's twins, an old man who lives in the carriage house, and the interior designer, are how we acquire our knowledge of the characters in Tangled Ashes.

Each character is interesting, in their own way. The nanny, Jade, tries to understand Becker, and it is their developing relationship that makes me think Michele Phoenix has a sequel in mind. I say this mainly because of the ending, but I'll let you decide.

I enjoyed the format of Tangled Ashes, reading dialogue from WWII, followed by the current time - during the renovation fifty years later. My concern with the story is plot related. There were a lot of things going on with Becker and all of his strained relationships, but there was no conclusion to the conflicts involved with them. I would have preferred the ending of Tangled Ashes to be as fascinating as the beginning.

There is a thread of Christianity sprinkled throughout the story, and it is nicely done, not obnoxious.

I recommend Tangled Ashes by Michele Phoenix for readers who enjoy learning history by reading a book, in this case, WWII history.

The Contessa's Vendetta
Mirella Sichirollo Patzer
History and Women Press
c/o Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
B009KTI1C6, $4.99, www.amazon.com

The era is A.D. 1645, in the city of Vicenza, Italy. The population is rapidly decreasing because of a deadly plague. To protect her family and live-in servants, Contessa Mancini quarantines everyone in her home. Against her better judgment, one day the Contessa decides to take a walk, a decision she regrets for the rest of her life. During her stroll down the street, she comes across a young boy, ill and suffering on the ground. She tries to help, and comes in close contact with him, which results in contracting the disease.

If that is not bad enough, a monk finds the Contessa, and tries to help her, as she did the child. However, thought to be dead from being in such bad shape, they bury her. The only problem is she is still alive.

Contessa Mancini wakes up, and to her advantage, because of a poorly built coffin, she is able to claw and kick her way out, ending up in her ancestor's mausoleum. During her efforts to escape the mausoleum, Contessa discovers a secret tunnel used by brigands to hide treasures of gold, silver, and gems worth a fortune.

Once Contessa is free, she learns her husband, Dario, and best friend, Beatrice, are having an affair. Neither grieved for her death, and she becomes aware of how little she meant to both, as a wife and friend. Dario even neglects their young daughter, and proves he isn't much of a father either.

This is where Contessa Moncini develops her strategy for revenge. She tells no one she is alive while she plans and executes her vendetta against Dario and Beatrice.

Mirella Sichirollo Patzer writes with attention and details to her characters and settings. Patzer creates this period of 17th century history to come alive, arousing my interest. All her characters bring substance to the story and I appreciate learning about Vicenza, Italy.

My personal concern with, The Contessa's Vendetta, is that many parts are drawn-out, for example: Contessa's thoughts repeated often, prolong the story.

I recommend The Contessa's Vendetta by Mirella Sichirollo Patzer, to be an entertaining approach to learning history, hence my love for historical novels.

The Charter
Gillian E Hamer
G.E. Hamer
Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
B0080JOA7W, $3.90, www.amazon.com

Gillian E Hamer writes an outstanding Chapter One in her historical novel, The Charter. It is typical for the first couple of paragraphs in a book to hook the reader; however, The Charter's entire first chapter is extraordinary.

As a historical novel, the story is based on the Royal Charter's shipwreck that occurred in 1859. It is a fascinating read; because it isn't often I travel to the rocky Welsh coast and the Irish Sea.

The storm of the century claimed many lives on the Royal Charter. The survivors in the Irish Sea, who made it to shore, were happy to possess their gold from Australia. This is where Gillian E Hamer develops her plot.

Sarah, the main character, has a father who displays odd behavior during his life. After his death, Sarah receives clues to locate his gold, at the reading of his will. In her quest to find the treasure, Sarah has to decide whom to trust and whom not to trust. Is Sarah successful in locating the gold?

Hamer adds the paranormal, crime, mystery, and murder, to her historical novel. Are crimes and mysteries solved?

The characters are captivating, and the story reads at an ideal pace. I did predict the outcome of one character, however, that was the exception. The story is unique for a historical novel, and the 'ghost' twist Hamer integrated with amazing skill, was not exaggerated.

Gillian E Hamer sends a subtle message in her intriguing novel, The Charter: Greed can wreak havoc on you and your relationships over time.

I look forward to reading more from Gillian E Hamer; I enjoyed her unique style of writing historical fiction.

Mary Crocco, Reviewer
mrc-bookreviewer.blogspot.com


Daniel's Bookshelf

I, Michael Bennett
James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
Little, Brown and Company
c/o Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
9781620901403, $27.99, www.amazon.com

I selected this book mainly, because I do like a fast paced book by Patterson and I am a fan of detective fiction. I enjoy Alex Cross too. I did enjoy Tick Tock with their last book. I was prepared for a fast novel in this time of the year when the pace is always moving before the snow flurries and colder weather into the fall and winter.

Michael Bennett is leading this investigation to knock down the large Mexican Cartels, and their ruthless kingpin, Manuel Perrine. Michael is soon to see how much exhausted effort it takes to get all the right ducks in a row to bust them. There can be no mistakes as these powerful individuals have a large force of people, and resources that they are controlling to keep their operations smoothly running. One of the Dominican's partners has agreed to flip against his business partner, Angel Candelerio. He was a childhood friend of Perrine, and they are going to meet in New York at noon.The bugs worked out well, with his assistance in helping Mike and his team. They consisted people of the FBI, DEA, and NYPD bringing more evidence. The surveillance teams are set in place to get the needed evidence to help obtain the convictions.

Then during a graduation for law school in Madison Square Garden all hell breaks loose during the surveillance. It takes awhile to locate Manuel Perrine who is fleeing after his daughter and family are secured by the police team. Michael chases after him, but Manuel doesn't go easily in the pursuit. One waiter gets his neck broken and three police officer's get killed by Manuel's protective assistant. She is a one person fighting machine, and she eludes capture. Manuel does get captured, but the price of lives was so very high. Following the capture violence, the arraignment leads to three security officers and the judge killed.

During Manuel's pending trial, Michael Bennett takes his family including his ten kids and nanny Mary Catherine on an escape vacation trip to their family spot in upstate New York. He figures this will give all them some relief from the gang related violence and chaos in New York. Bennett is convinced the trip would be a good timing of some needed peace and quiet. He is wrong as he finds out that the long extended hands of hired henchmen make the dream of a haven from Perrine a pipe dream. The loyalties of this Mexican king are seemingly everywhere, and the danger follows them to the town of Newburgh, which is nearby to their family summer cottage. Between back and forth the battles take place with several attempts on breaking down the connections of the Latin and Mexican gangs with the FBI, and local Greenburgh police force including the New York finest. Mike learns quickly that it will take a lot to keep him under wraps, while Perrine escapes again and continues to threaten his family. This being not too far away on a train ride to a town that has gang problems, and it has loyalties with some paid connections to protect the king.

James Patterson is not new to the reader public with his Michael Bennett, Alex Cross, The Women's Murder Club, his Other books, and now the Private series. In the youth reading series, he has Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch and Wizard and Middle School. All in all, one busy author with a multitude of co-authors through the years and new ones keeping the pages cranking out new novels.

Michael Ledwidge has ten novels to-date including seven New York Times bestsellers co-authored with James Patterson. His solo novels include The Narrowback and Bad Connection.

15 Seconds
Andrew Gross
William Morrow
c/o Harper Collins
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
9780061655975, $25.99, www.williammorrow.com

I have already read Don't Look Twice, and I have to be honest. I have been busy reading many different authors. I recall reading awhile back some of his joint novels with James Patterson. I liked all of those novels, and I concluded his co-authoring with Patterson made those stories better. I finally got back to him for this novel. I plan on catching up on past books I missed or didn't read.

Henry Steadman is on his way to get to his destination after getting off the plane at the airport of Ft. Lauderdale. He has to deliver a keynote address for a conference in the city of Jackson, and he is at a traffic light looking for a street name. He pulls into a one-way street and a cop pulls him over for the infraction, as Henry is going the wrong way. His life is about to change for the worse as the cop proceeds to inform him of that violation, and other infractions, He is informed he is to be arrested for his hostile attitude. He appears he is about to be transported after being handcuffed. Other cops come to assist the first officer, and for some reason Henry is mistaken for someone else. After discussion he is let go, where all now seems well. A blue car comes up to the officer's car and he is shot several times. The other cops have left, so Henry checks him out, knowing this is going to look bad for him. He chases after the blue car while calling 911. The operator tells him to return to the scene of the shooting. Now the chase begins shortly after the shooting with the police in pursuit after Henry. He first was perceived by the police of being the killer of the traffic scene officer. He called his ex-wife to inform her of the events he had witnessed, and he was involved after getting into the conference city.

Henry was going to hook with his friend in Ft. Lauderdale for golf and he thought he might be able to help in this dilemma of being pursued by the police. He arrived at his house to find him dead too. He is about to be pursued for two crimes now. He is unable to go to his police, and he is eluding them while calling his office and his ex-wife for support. He receives a chilling call that is not the only problem he has to worry about. He is being framed for two murders, and he to save the other person he loves the most. All of this to protect himself from being shot by the police, and also from the person who is bent out of framing him for a reason unknown to Henry. He has to convince someone he is innocent of all those charges, because his life is being destroyed. Henry is forced to pursue the framer, which puts him in a face-to-face confrontation trying to end this personal manhunt.

Andrew Gross wrote five novels with James Patterson, and I believe contributed more to Patterson's novels after reading two of his solo novels. I read Don't Look Twice, and I blame myself for not going back for more of his writing. I look forward to picking up his earlier novel Eyes Wide Open as soon as I can. This novel added more credence to liking his novels with me, than one can ever know. I promise not to even mildly ignore him anymore.

Daniel Allen
Reviewer


Danvas' Bookshelf

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Foucault, Michel
Vintage Books
c/o The Random House Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, 17th floor, New York, NY 10019
www.randomhouse.com
0679752552, $14.00, www.amazon.com

As a sociologist, I find Foucault's book Discipline and Punish very interesting. Foucault explicates the drastic and emerging one of the criminal just system (prison) in the traditional way. Foucault gives a detailed account of the history of the French penal system during the mid-18th Century. Foucault's analysis of the unfolding historical events during that time identifies the domination of the human spirit and body. He provides a theoretical framework as to why the penal system evolved into the system during that time and as it is today and further how it permits the control of the masses in the contemporary society.

Part One: Torture

The body of the condemned.

Foucault's Discipline and Punish begins with a very detailed account of the torture and execution of Damiens in March of 1757, a regicide (someone who kills the King or Queen). Foucault gives a detailed time-line of daily activities in the House of Young Prisoners in Paris, written 80 years from the time of Damiens' execution (pg. 3-7). His main point here is to explain how drastically the penal system changed in those 80 years. In a period of only a few years between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, torture as public spectacle disappeared (pg. 7) as did "the body as the major target of penal repression" (pg. 8). Two processes emerged during this period:

First: Disappearance of punishment as spectacle (pg. 8); and
Second: Slackening of the hold on the body (pg. 10)

This drastic change from punishment as public spectacle to the penal system saw the offender seen negatively in the public eye. The publicity shifted to the trial and justice dissociated itself from execution, in which trusting autonomous others to do the job (pg. 9-10). However, since the new penal system which was defined by the great codes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries started being in operation, judges have taken up other extra work than just convicting, the power of judging has been transferred from judges to other authorities. "The whole penal operation has taken on extra-juridical elements and personnel" (pg. 22).

The spectacle of the scaffold
During the period of torture, the right to punish was symbiotic to the authority of the King. Crimes committed during this time were seen as crimes committed against the king or the monarch and not for the public good and so public displays of torture and executions were seen as a warning against those who could dare go against the kings will. It was also a way of showing the king's mighty. However, in many occasions the people who gathered to witness such punishments and executions turned against the executioners thus at times curtailing the process whenever they felt that the execution was unjust.

Part Two: Punishment

Generalized punishment

Foucault in part two describes a different approach towards punishment and also what constituted crime and the class of those who were considered criminals. Reformers of the eighteenth-century made a call of: "Instead of taking revenge, criminal justice should simply punish" (pg. 74). "Changes in punishment marked the end of the sovereign's vengeance" (pg. 74). "During this period, crimes seemed to lose their violence while punishments lost some of their intensity, but at the cost of greater intervention" (75).

The Birth of Prison

As people continued to resist public executions and instead started craving for punishment towards the end of the 18th Century, the idea of prison stated to emerge and with prison, the deprivation of liberty was the main form of punishment and since everyone needs Liberty. The penalty imposed on offenders affected the poor more than the rich, though denying one had the same impact of discomfort to all offenders. So as prisons emerged they become more than just a place of confinement and denial of freedom but were also facilities to instill discipline and social qualities acceptable to society. Prisons in short were meant to be correctional and reform institutions and the offender after serving his/her sentence would less likely to commit a crime and instead be a contributing member of society.

Part Three: Discipline

Sub-title one: Docile bodies.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, discipline became a general formula of domination" (pg. 137). Foucault argues that during this time, discipline produced subjected and practiced bodies, 'docile' bodies. Discipline increased the forces of the body (in economic terms of utility) and diminished these same forces (in political terms of obedience). In short, it dissociated power from the body; on the one hand, it turned it into an 'aptitude,' a 'capacity,' which it seeks to increase; on the other hand, it reversed the course of the energy, the power that might result from it, and turned it into a relation of strict subjection. If economic exploitation separates the force and the product of labor, then disciplinary coercion establishes in the body the constricting link between an increased aptitude and an increased domination" (pg. 138).

Sub-title two - The means of correct training.

Foucault brings forward the idea of the "coercion of bodies" (pg. 169) by contending that the main function of disciplinary power is to 'train." "Instead of bending all its subjects into a single uniform mass, it separates, analyzes, differentiates, carries its procedures of decomposition to the point of necessary and sufficient single units...Discipline 'makes' individuals; it is the specific technique of a power that regards individuals both as objects and as instruments of its exercise." This is the beginning of the invasion of the "great forms" and mechanisms of the sovereign or state by disciplinary power in the form of "humble modalities" Foucault considers three "simple instruments" of disciplinary power:

"hierarchical observation" (pg. 170-177)
"normalizing judgment and" (pg. 177-184)
"the examination" (pg. 184-192)

"The examination," according to Foucault, "combines the techniques of an observing hierarchy and those of a normalizing judgment" (pg.184). What is experienced during this time in prison is that, discipline which was instilled in criminals was similar to the discipline in military units, where one was rewarded for achievement, while punished for lack of conformity. This led to tough rules and living conditions under which the prisoners lived. Every minute they were awake they were forced to be constructive thus preparing them to be productive members of society after being set free.

Sub-title three: Panopticism.

In this part of his book, Foucault's discussion of the Panopticon. This this was Jeremy Bentham's idea. He starts off with the plague and the leper (pg. 195-200) where plague control at the end of the 17th century prescribed the creation of inspectors (syndics) and the transformation of the home into an "enclosed, segmented space, observed at every point," in which individuals were the objects of writing, observation, and power. Thus, the plague, symbol of "all forms of confusion and disorder," was "met by order" and systematic power; those acts and individuals that fell outside of this discipline were castigated. Foucault contrasts the system of order established by the plague to the one I can call 'class distinctions' which clearly defined who the leper was and who was "healthy". What is interesting here is that, those who were being watched (inmates) were just figures of information and were never participants of communication (pg. 200). What actually happened is that, the Panopticism replaced crowds and their "collective effect [s] "with" collection [s] of separated individualities (pg. 201). Thus the ultimate goal of Panopticon was to instill in the inmate a state of conscious, fear and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power" where the effects were continuous and internalized as the practice of surveillance was meant achieve (pg. 201). According to Foucault this type of surveillance could be operated by anyone and thus increasing the sense of fear amongst everyone (pg. 202). Further, the Panopticon was not only a surveillance machine but "also a laboratory" (pg. 203), "a privileged place from experiments on men, and for analyzing with complete certainty the transformations that may be obtained from them" (pg. 204). To monitor the progress of prisoners required constant supervision and it required a prison warder to monitor criminals all the time to ensure compliance and this is what leads to the emergence of institutional designs like Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon.

Analysis

What is Foucault's view of Prison?

According to Foucault, it wasn't till the 18th and 19th centuries that detention drastically emerged as "the penalty par excellence" (pg. 231). Prison was supposedly thought to be an institution where "justice for all" was to be practiced,...'equal'" and "a legal machinery that is supposed to be 'autonomous,' but which contains all the asymmetries of disciplinary subjection" (pg. 231-232). Prison as an institution instead has become so permanent in our society that even thinking of an alternative is hard and unimaginable. Prison has become a source of "deprivation of liberty and the technical transformation of individuals" (pg. 233) since its inception in the 19th century.

Has prison succeeded to meet its intended goal of curtailing crime?

According to Foucault, the main objective of the prison was to do away with crime by punishing the criminal. In this way, this could serve as an example to the rest of the society and prevent others from committing crimes. However to Foucault's disappointment, prisons did not meet their objective instead they made criminals worse "Prisons do not diminish the crime rate: they can be extended, multiplied or transformed, the quantity of crime and criminals remains stable or, worse, increases..." (pg. 265) "Detention causes recidivism; those leaving prison have more chance than before of going back to it; convicts are, in a very high proportion, former inmates; 38 per cent of those who left the maisons cetrals were convicted again..." (pg. 265) "The prison cannot fail to produce delinquents. It does so by the very type of exercise that it imposes on its inmates: whether they are isolated in cells or whether they are given useless work, for which they will find no employment, it is, in any case, not ' to think of man in society; it is to create an unnatural, useless and dangerous existence'... The prison also produces delinquents by imposing violent constraints on its inmates; it is supposed to apply law, and to teach respect for it; but all its functioning operates in the form of an abuse of power. The arbitrary power of the administration..." (pg. 266) The prison makes possible, even encourages, the organization of a milieu of delinquents, loyal to one another, hierarchized, ready to aid and abet any future criminal act...(pg. 267) "The conditions to which the free inmates are subjected necessarily condemn them to recidivism: they are under the surveillance of the police; they are assigned to a particular residence, or forbidden others..." (Foucault, 1975: 267) Lastly, the prison indirectly produces delinquents by throwing the inmate's family into destitution..." (pg. 268). He goes on to say, "For the observation that prison fails to eliminate crime, one should perhaps substitute the hypothesis that prison has succeeded extremely well introducing delinquency, a specific type, a politically or economically less dangerous -and on occasion, usable- form of illegality; in producing delinquents, in an apparently marginal, but in fact centrally supervised milieu; in producing the delinquent as a pathologized subject" (pg. 277).

Has prison embraced reform?

Foucault says that prison "reform" has been going on since the birth of prison and has formed part of the penal process (pg. 234-235). He did not believe that prison as a system was a failing system; to him, it has succeeded in decreasing crime by punishing criminals and deterring others. Prison as a system allowed the upper class in society to oppress the lower class by incarcerating, isolating and economically controlling the most active members of the lower class. Surveillance of those who are rendered powerless is a clear prove of such a practice. Those who try to resist are termed either as criminals or delinquents and to be safe, many turn to conformity as they cannot beat the machinery of societal power and ultimately they lose identity to the masses of society, though to Foucault this is a serious crime.

The History of Sexuality
Foucault, Michel
Vintage Books USA
c/o The Random House Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, 17th floor, New York, NY 10019
www.randomhouse.com
0679724699, $14.00, www.amazon.com

Background.

The History of Sexuality is Michael Foucault's three volume series book. He wrote it in 1976. The first publication was in French. The series in this book include: The Will to Knowledge, The Use of Pleasure, and The Care of the Self.

In part one of his book (We "other Victorians"), Foucault argues against the thesis that sexuality has always been repressed in the Western World. He gives the Victorian era as prove to his assertion. People have not been free to discuss sex because ..."sex was associated with sin for a long time - although it would remain to be discovered how this association was formed...." however he warns that "....one would be careful not to state in summary and hasty fashion that sex was "condemned" - but we must also ask why we burden ourselves today with so much guilt for having once made sex a sin" (pg. 9)

Interestingly, though Foucault's title is sexuality, his main interest is how sexuality is related to power.

In part two of his book, Foucault contends that the age of repression began in the 17th century. He says that "calling sex by its name thereafter become more difficult and more costly... it had first been necessary to subjugate it at the level of language, control its free circulation in speech, expunge it from the things that were said, and extinguish the words rendered it too visibly present" (pg.17).

In Part three of this book, Foucault compares sex patterns in the Western and Eastern worlds. He says that the Eastern world erotic art explores and expresses sex and is linked to pleasure and experience. However, the Western World is characterized by what he calls "scientia sexualis, "the only civilization to have developed over centuries procedures for telling the truth of sex which is geared to a form of knowledge-power strictly opposed to the art of initiations and the masterful secret: I have in mind the confession" (pg. 58) and that the, "Western man has become a confessing animal" (pg. 59).

In part four, Foucault analyzes power as a means of social control. He notes that this type power is different from power of the law. He states that juridic-discursive power is characterized by, first, "the negative relation" (pg. 83) between power and sex. Second, "the insistence of the rule" (pg. 83) Third, "the circle of prohibition" (pg. 84) here he discusses the don't s (taboos), what we are supposed to abstain from. Forth, "the logic of censorship" (pg. 84) three forms emerge, "affirming that such a thing is not permitted, preventing it from being said, denying it exists" (pg. 84) and fifth, "the uniformity of the apparatus" (pg. 84).

In chapter three (Domain), Foucault, points out that, "there is no single, all encompassing strategy valid for all of society and uniformly bearing on all the manifestations of sex" (pg. 103) He provides, "four strategic unities which in the beginning of eighteenth century, formed specific mechanisms of knowledge and power centering on sex" (pg. 103). First was, hysterization of woman's bodies, Second, "pedagogization of children's sex," (pg.104), where parents, families, educators etc were supposed to be in charge of the children's sex. Third, "socialization of procreative behavior" (pg.104-105), Fourth, "psychiatrization of perverse pleasure" (pg. 105).

Foucault in chapter four (Periodization) outlines a number of prohibitions in the seventeenth century. The twentieth century was when the mechanisms of sexual control started to loosen. Heredity and sexual degeneration started to emerge with diseases accompanying sexuality. With the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, the state had to intervene to control marriages through medical examinations, "the medicine of perversions and the program of eugenics were two great innovations in the technology of sex of the second half of the nineteenth century" (pg. 118).

In part five (Right of Death and power over life) Foucault contends that, "one of the characteristic privileges of sovereign power was the right to decide life and death" (pg. 133). However, as time passed, this privilege was passed onto society. Like in his book Discipline and Punish, where he mentions the abolition of the death penalty by the sovereigns in the 18th century, Foucault also mentions the coming of an end of such practice by the sovereigns, "this death that was based on the right of the sovereign is now manifested as simply the reverse of the right of the social body to ensure, maintain, or develop its life" (pg. 136).

Analysis.

Foucault's 'History of sexuality' has excited and stimulated me. It has given insights into understanding about sexuality not only in the modern society but also in the 20th century societies. It is a very interesting book as it spells out clearly the issue of sexuality and power struggle. He introduces an interesting genealogy of sexual identities, such as homosexual and heterosexual (pg. 76). This gave me a lot of insight because of my cultural orientation into this subject. He also explicates on how sexual identities contribute to the politics of sexual orientation and power. Foucault however, tells us that sex was a forbidden subject before the 19th century and yet it was introduced to society later by Christians who are deemed to uphold moral ethics of our society.

Conclusion

The history of sexuality is an eye opener to the anticipated audience of Foucault. Like his book title, the history of sexuality, Foucault's main argument develops from the start to the point where he actually brings out his argument of how sexuality and not sex is related to power and political ascendance "The object...is to define the regime of power - knowledge-pleasure that sustains the discourse on human sexuality in our part of the world" (pg. 11). So it is very important that those who read the history of sexuality make clear distinctions between sex and sexuality as Foucault had intended.

Dr. Danvas Mabeya
Reviewer


Duncan's Bookshelf

Blue Gold
Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos
Pocket Books
100 Front Street, Riverside, NJ 08075
9781439188613, $9.99, www.amazon.com

A female 'water scientist' is kidnapped by those who wish to steal her process for desalting sea water. Ten years later Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are driving an 'ultra-high' powered race-boat on a course west of San Diego, CA. On the last leg of the course the two lead racers see dead whales in their path. Austin destroys his racer in a successful attempt to stop the other lead racer (with two unconscious men) from destroying a restored wooden yacht with children aboard.

Austin and Zavala investigate the death of the whales: caused by ultra-high temperatures of discharged water in the ocean. Their actions lead them into suspenseful situations in a mini-sub and the last of the 1948 Flying Wings.

Blue Gold is vintage Cussler. The side-kicks tackle the evil forces that would control the world's water supply. A parallel plot with Paul and Gamay (NUMA environmental scientists) is used to give the reader pause (and rest) between the scenes. As I said, Blue Gold is vintage Cussler. Austin and Zavala are gentlemen as always and the ladies love them but their adoration is not returned. Oops, perhaps I should not have told you this last comment. Enjoy the book.

Compulsion
Jonathon Kellerman
Ballantine Books
c/o The Random House Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, 17th floor
New York, NY 10019
www.randomhouse.com
9780345465283, $9.99, www.amazon.com

A young lady, drunk, driving home in the hills above Hollywood, runs out of gas late at night. An enormous Bentley pulls up, driven by a woman. The drunk woman accepts a ride and disappears. Her partially decomposed body is later found with a designer scarf.

Alex Delaware, psychologist, consultant, assists police Lieutenant Milo Sturgis with a case involving an obsession to dress in women's clothes and socialize. Delaware, in New York, tracks a man who may have killed two neighbors solely for the thrill. His suspect, he believes, may have traveled to London, Paris, Rome in search of random victims.

Compulsion is an interesting novel, with memorable characters. An easy read; but somehow it fails to rise to the level of earlier Alex Delaware novels.

Marty Duncan, Reviewer
www.omagadh.com


Gail's Bookshelf

Ten Plagues
Mary Nealy
Barbour Books
1810 Barbour Drive
PO Box 719, Ulrichville, Ohio 44683
9781602606845, $12.99, www.barbourbooks.com

Mary Connealy uses the penname of Mary Nealy for her venture into "Ten Plagues," a thriller police narrative that compares to the popular television show, Criminal Minds. The fast-paced, well-characterized, well-written suspense plot includes spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare, psychology and a crazed killer with a distinctive agenda.

The story begins with detective Keren Collins camped out in her Impala alone, half-a-block from the brownstone under surveillance. She wonders again why her partner O'Shea had to be late, today of all days and whispers impatiently, "C'mon...where are you?"

Even though Keren is a competent, no-nonsense, play-it-by-the book detective she quickly recognizes the too familiar goose bumps rising up her arms that tell her evil demons are present. She scans the surrounding decrepit buildings searching for the source, even though her spiritual gift of discernment only alerts her to evil's powerful presence.

Today was no different. That same discernment now sent "...a cold chill of evil sleet through her veins..." Bringing with it such a powerful sense of impending doom her hands shook on the steering wheel, as she felt herself drawn into the presence of a powerful "blackened soul."

Without warning an explosion rocked the thoroughfare sending a barrage of brick's plummeting into the streets below. Amidst the gritty dust and powerful heat Keren saw several guards outside the tenement under surveillance. However, as the smoke cleared she saw they were young teens, their bloodied arms and legs tangled together like rag dolls. The heat from the blast blew hot air and grit into Keren's car as she "...leaped from the car and charged toward the bleeding boys..."

Thus begins Nealy's debut mystery that includes romance and intense action in a suspense laden narrative that never lets up. Add Paul Morris, an ex-cop with a secretive sinful past, who is now pastor for the Lighthouse Mission. A serial killer who uses the ten plagues from the Bible to select and murder his victims. And a detective torn between love and revenge, all of which combine to offer readers an unforgettable read.

The author, Christy nominee and RITA award finalist for her "Romantic Comedy with Cowboys" novels brings the same intriguing character development, dialogue and plotting to her debut mystery - "Ten Plagues." She's a new voice in romantic suspense, one I hope to see more of.

At the Feet of Jesus: Daily Devotions to Nurture a Mary Heart'
Joanna Weaver
Waterbrook Press
12265 Oracle Blvd. Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
9780307731005, $15.99, www.waterbrookmultnomah.com

Joanna Weaver, pastor's wife and bestselling author of "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World," writes about intimacy with God in her new book. The easy-to-use, 365-day devotional encourages readers to start each day "...at the feet of Jesus..." also the title of her new release.

For most of us finding time to do that is challenging and it's a challenge Joanna admits she shares. Even though we have more labor-saving devices than ever, our lives are busier. The distracting schedules and responsibilities of children, family, church and business keep families busy and tired, eager to fall into bed at night.

Yet deep down inside, many of us, like Joanna, feel our "...spirits long for time with the Lord..." in spite of life's demands. And that is the focus of her new devotional book, where she notes it's all about "choices and priorities" that lead to meaningful times with the Lord and decisive "personal application."

Just as Mary made the choice to sit at the feet of Jesus while her sister Martha remained busy in the kitchen, readers must make a similar choice. Because that's "...where it all begins..."

Joanna's devotions make it an easy choice for readers who prioritize time for the Lord. The brief, one-page devotions, some from previous works, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, Having a Mary Spirit and Lazarus Awakening and some original, can be brief or long, depending on available time.

Devotions begin with a targeted Bible verse, illustration and Scripture to "read and reflect" on. "Going Deeper" segments are scattered throughout most of which have never been published, such as "Praying God's Word" on page 174.

To illustrate, she uses Beth Moore's book Praying God's Word to demonstrate the freedom available to believers who follow seven listed prayer steps. Here she teaches how to connect prayer with God's spiritual weapons like Ephesians six instructs.

The devotional ends with a unique one-year Bible reading plan that includes the Old and New Testament, the books of Psalm, Isaiah and the date read. This bible reading plan can be started any day of the year and isn't confined to January 1. Go to www.becominghis.com insert the date, the book you want to start with and a printable reading plan appears.

There is nothing not to like about Joanna's devotional. Time spent with the Lord encourages intimate relationship, draws readers closer to God where they come to "know" Him and not just know about Him. A much needed benefit for the times we live in. To claim God as an intimate friend requires time and attention. Consider your priorities, your choices and discover the value of one-on-one time with the Lord.

Sketchy Behavior
Erynn Mangum
Zondervan Publishers
5300 Patterson Avenue SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49530
9780310721444, $ 9.99, www.zondervan.com

Erynn Mangum, author of the popular Miss Match and Cool Beans series, tackles a humorous young adult mystery in "Sketchy Behavior." There sixteen-year-old Kate Carter, high school junior, discovers a unique talent for criminal profiling to add to her existing passions for art, humor and sarcasm.

The story begins when Miss Yeager, Kate's art teacher announces the arrival of Detective Masterson who plans to speak on the "field of criminal sketches." Kate suspects Miss Yeager's ulterior motive has more to do with the detective rather than how art is used in the real world. She can't help but notice Miss Yeager's excitement and "too bright" smile at the detective's entrance, still Kate has to admit she's fascinated by what the detective has to say.

The investigator begins by explaining why sketch artists are a vital part of "interview teams" who speak with "emotionally battered" witnesses. He then moves to the chalk board to demonstrate how "forensic sketch artists" work.

When he's finished, Miss Yeager describes a man's features to the class and asks students to draw who she describes. Kate closes her eyes to imagine each facial detail and then begins to sketch. Meanwhile Miss Yeager and Detective Masterson spend "the whole class time whispering."

When Kate finishes, she hands in her drawing not knowing her "photo quality" sketch will enable police to catch a major serial killer known as "John X." She doesn't suspect she's put her life in danger with a killer who will use any means possible to exact revenge. At the same time Kate is still in recovery mode from her first and worst dating experience ever. A date she refuses to talk about and mentally and verbally files under "Do Not Speak of Ever."

Add Kate's best friend, Maddy, suicidal over a breakup with football boyfriend Tyler, Kate's belief Maddy should be more concerned with her overdue English assignment; families and students terrorized by murder, "John X" still on the loose; Silent Justin from Kate's art class, romantic involvement of a teacher and DJ, a policeman assigned to Kate for her safety. Erynn uses this wild mix to give readers a fun, sometimes a laugh-out-loud quick and easy read.

The author writes with a sassy and witty undertone that underscores a narrative of "murder mayhem, sketch pads and a rather foreboding meatloaf" teen readers can relate to. Christian themes weave throughout as an integral part of the narrative which opens the story to a more general audience. I especially liked Erynn's character development and the likeable, fun characters all readers will enjoy getting to know.

Our Constitution Rocks
Juliette Turner
Zondervan Publishers
5300 Patterson Avenue SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49530
9780310734215, $15.99, www.zondervan.com

Fourteen-year-old Juliette Turner, writer speaker and daughter of conservative talk radio host Janine Turner, released "Our Constitution Rocks" in September. The book's "kid-friendly" format teaches about our nation's founding documents, the participants who wrote them and why. She engages her audience's interest with "fun facts," at times laugh-out-loud quotes, witty cartoons and succinct comments from "actual debates."

Juliette, who knows her target audience, breaks the information into bite-size pieces, "clause by clause." Although that sounds boring her layout is fascinating, fun and easy-to-read, one that will attract the interest of teachers and young readers, especially those in the home-school market.

Materials include concise phrases of information in comic strip style balloons that float over heads of caricatured statesmen such as John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry or Benjamin Franklin. In addition to half-page summaries with colorful page inserts.

She uses a pedigree analogy to explain how a family's genealogical tree is similar to "America's genealogical tree." Only our nation's American tree was shaped by "founding fathers and mothers who planted great ideas into the soil" instead of genetic material. Those ideas, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" thrived to become the basis of freedoms we enjoy today, in the same way genetic traits can be traced back through the generations.

Those seeds also permitted America's tree to "flourish," because of the "checks and balance of power and the people's voice and votes" implemented. To ensure readers understand she compares our founding documents to a guidebook a gardener might use.

If the gardener doesn't read or understand the guidebook, his garden won't flourish. In the same manner, if current and future generations don't understand our nation's guidebook, the checks and balances that guard our cherished freedoms can be misunderstood, misused or abused that could result in the loss of freedom as we know it.

Because of the attention span of her target audience information is presented in short personalized segments of: "The bottom line...why should I care...what were they thinking...breaking it down...how can I make a difference...what has it done for me lately...fun facts."

Written for kids by a kid, Juliette takes readers on a unique historical journey that begins with "We the People." A motto she believes must include America's youth or else the cherished rights granted and guaranteed by the Constitution could become a distant memory.

Juliette's interest in the historical documents was the result of hearing her mom read the Constitution aloud over spring break. Then her homeschool assignment, to simplify and rewrite ninety scholarly essays from Constituting America into a "kid-friendly" format, gave her the idea for this book. Not only is the book an excellent teaching tool, it's a great refresher course for adults.

The book's promotional video to the left of the review is lively, entertaining and exceptionally well done http://tinyurl.com/chza8rp besides a homeschooled student, author and speaker, Juliette Turner is also National Youth Director for Constituting America. To learn more about this amazing young woman check out Mike Church's interview with Juliette: www.mikechurch.com/transcripts/2012-constitution-day-interview-with-juliette-turner/

Normally I don't add to reviews, but in this case, though I've never met Juliette, I want to say how much I respect her. Not only is she bright, well-educated, a polished speaker and involved in events that can help shape the future of our nation, she's been taught how to reason and think for herself. Since she's fourteen-years-old, I applaud her mother who homeschooled her.

No Easy Day
Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer
Dutton
c/o Penguin Group USA
375 Hudson Street, 3rd Floor l
NY, NY l 10014
9780525953722, $26.95, www.amazon.com

"No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden' " recounts the elite U.S. Navy SEAL's team's task to find, capture or kill the mastermind terrorist known as Osama bin Laden in a mission named - Operation Neptune Spear. The first-person narrative is from the perspective of one of the "...first men through the door...present at his [the terrorist's] death."

Although some have asked who pulled the trigger SEALS believe the assignment was a "team mission" and it doesn't matter who pulled the trigger, because they "serve something greater than themselves." The account also reveals "...the human toll SEALS [and their families] pay..." because of their selfless dedication, sacrifices and sufferings required to become a SEAL.

The book begins with the roar of MH-60, Black Hawk helicopters, their rotors"...beating the air..." as they transport the "handpicked...experienced" SEAL teams to Osama bin Laden's reported home in Abbottabad. Their story reads from beginning to end like a fiction action adventure tale, except their adventure was real, deadly, dangerous and historic.

Yet it was the style of adventure Mark had longed for since the age of thirteen when he first read Men in Green Faces by former SEAL, Gene Wentz for a school "book report." He worked hard to make that dream a reality and served as a SEAL from 1998 to 2012. In that time he "...completed thirteen consecutive combat deployments..." where training and deployments taught him why SEALS adopted their Navy Seal Philosophy - "The only easy day was yesterday."

Mark knew only the best of the best survive to become SEAL's because of the punishing, grueling training and endurance exacted. He learned to focus "...on just making it to the next meal..." when senior combat veterans held his future in their hands and could be over heard muttering, "Just get to lunch."

That's what it was like when Mark, already a SEAL, was selected as a candidate for "Green Team "...where just passing was failing and second place was the first loser..." This group had to manage their stress and perform at "peak level - all the time." Those who endured the "nine-month selection course" would become part of SEAL Team Six, otherwise known as United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, abbreviated DEVGRU.

"No Easy Day" is more than a story of courageous SEALS. It's a story of cost, sacrifice and the extreme human toll paid to accomplish "dirty jobs" that keep our nation secure. Mark never divulges team "tactics, techniques or procedures," details of ongoing missions that would endanger lives of SEALS or any information that would compromise or harm the United States.

He went so far as to hire a "Special Operations attorney" to review the manuscript and ensure nothing in the book could be used as a "source of sensitive information."

The book includes two sets of multi-page photographs. The first set is in color and features deployment pictures, men in training and military equipment. The second set are fascinating, detailed black and white photographs of their historic mission - Operation Neptune Spear.

This unforgettable true story ends with names of fallen SEAL's and the reminder that we "...live for a bigger purpose..." Here Mark encourages readers to "...be an asset to your family, community and country."

The book was written under the pseudonym of Mark Owen. He asked writer, Kevin Maurer who "embedded" with Special Forces several times to write the book with him. Most of the proceeds from book sales go to charities that help support the families of fallen Navy SEALs.

The Little Dyslexic Angel
Written and Illustrated by Robert Warrington
Gazebo Books
13317 SE 195th Street, Renton, WA 98058
9780984474837, $15.95, www.gazebobooks.com

Washington author Robert Warrington's debut children's book is an imaginative narrative wrapped around God's latest created angel and the issue of dyslexia. The delightful tale, just in time for Dyslexia Awareness Week, Oct 8th through the 14th, captures the difficulties of dyslexia from a youngster's perspective.

http://www.national-awareness-days.com/dyslexia-awareness-week.html

Dyslexia became personal when Robert picked up his eleven-year-old niece Kelli from her weekly therapy appointment with the eye doctor. When she got in the car and said, "Today the letters finally stopped moving...!"

He laughed and said, "Letter don't move around Kelli."

She said they did for her, she couldn't see words. Instead she saw "...a bunch of dots, lines, and curves..."

Her words gave him this creative story idea that begins with a devastating Indonesian tidal wave and a beautiful cloud-bound angel in an inspired children's story of dyslexia, angels and Christmas. After the story begins God tells the little angel she is His first created angel in thousands of years. Then tells her He created her to act as the "angel of the innocent" in a "dangerous world gone mad."

Yet, before her work begins she must first discover her name and the special lesson God has prepared for her. God then describes what she must do, where she must go and says, "I have written them (the words and lessons) on the wind and hidden them in the rainbows."

That means the little angel must fly, but she has no wings. She goes on to learn she must earn the beautiful gossamer wings and her journey begins. Along the way readers meet the angel of Serenity, the angel of Courage and the angel of Wisdom, as well as Santa, his magical sleigh and team of reindeer. The angels help the little angel learn values of patience, courage and hope. And perhaps the most important lesson of all - to persevere when she can't read words because she can only see "...dots, lines, and curves floating in the rainbow."

Join the little angel on her life-changing journey and experience with her the reality of dyslexia, a problem Learning Inside Out says this about:

http://www.learning-inside-out.com/dyslexia-statistics.html

"...One in five students, or 15-20% of the population, have a language based learning disability. Dyslexia is probably the most common of the language based learning disabilities."

This narrative of courage, faith and hope teaches youngsters they aren't alone in their struggles with dyslexia, that many share their experiences and they are not odd or different as many feel. The book also includes national and international places and landmarks named in the story, eleven reference websites for parents of children with learning challenges and difficulties, along with names of famous people who struggled with dyslexia. This engaging story would also make a wonderful Christmas gift, which is fast approaching.

Vertical Church: What Every Heart Longs For, What Every Church Can Be'
James MacDonald
David C Cook
c/o Cook Communications
4050 Lee Vance View
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
9781434703729, $22.99, www.davidccook.com

James MacDonald, founding Senior Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Illinois wants worshipers, churches and leadership to experience Holy Spirit power and God's glory during worship. Yet that isn't a common church experience, although MacDonald says it is at Harvest Chapel in his new book, "Vertical Church: What Every Heart Longs For, What Every Church Can Be". There he shares his "...twenty-five-year try-fail-try again pursuit of that single goal - to experience God's glory..." in church.

MacDonald's search for God's "manifest presence" began with a "...stubborn-hearted prayer...he stole from Moses..." where he asked God to "Show me your glory," a prayer God answered many times over in subsequent years. Today, multiple church plants later, with church attendance at Rolling Meadows' founding campus over 13,000 on Sunday, congregations connect "...in heart, soul, mind and strength with..." their Creator. (pg. 19)

He credits such experiences to fervent prayer, adoration and worship that welcome God into Harvest's church services. Still it's under MacDonald's leadership that parishioners learned to "encounter" God during worship and not just "work" for God in church settings.

MacDonald's drive to seek God's presence began years earlier during a profound summer camp experience as "...a rebellious, stubborn teen..." On his return home ten days later his parents were overwhelmed with his announcement, "Mom! Dad! I found God!"

Since that time of authenticity with God, where "...God burst powerfully..." into MacDonald's soul "...he's never been satisfied with less..." That life-changing experience birthed a life purpose that continues in MacDonald's pastorate of Harvest's "Vertical Church." Where he reaches others through the "...loving interaction...and fervent prayers..." of genuine, faithful Christians.

He defines his church as "vertical." Where parishioners and leadership experience a "...theological paradigm shift...with God the seeker and worshippers the ones found..." That experience of God's glory, His "manifest presence," marks the defining difference between "horizontal" business-as-usual churches, and Harvest's "vertical" church.

MacDonald begins with an overview, "Read this First." The following three chapters detail the "biblical rationale" to support his opinions. Chapter four, "An Epic Failure," cites fascinating statistics and explores why America's churches are failing "one life at a time" with six thousand churches closing their doors every year. There he writes about "selfish shepherds," self-deception, repentance, salvation and much more.

The last half of the book explores the "how" of a vertical church and why churches need to be about Christ instead of "self-help" because Jesus Christ is the life-changer. He believes that can only happen when pastors preach "...the authority of God's Word without apology."

Some unusual aspects I found especially interesting were the use of bold print to highlight Scripture, brief summaries of church plants at chapters end and MacDonald's service as police chaplain. Something he says is a"...reality check every church leader would benefit from."

MacDonald writes with humility and describes much of what happens in churches across our nation today. Such as in chapter seven where he contrasts "relational or friendship gospel," with that of the Bible and writes, "...the power of the gospel is in the message itself..." Or when he talks about churches that treat "...God's glory as a by-product and the mission activities of the church as primary..." (pg. 300)

His exciting message is incredibly powerful. However God must be approached prayerfully, with humility and the utmost reverence, respect and love, which I believe this author, does. Still, because an encounter with God's "manifest presence" is such an awesome experience a word of caution should be added about seeking such an experience for the experience alone. Otherwise, I can only agree with a message from a much needed book every Christian should read.

Jesus Heals the Sick: Beginner's Bible series
Zonderkidz
5300 Patterson Avenue SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
9780310725183, $3.99, http://zondervan.com

In the storybook, "Jesus Heals the Sick," preschoolers meet Jarius and his sick daughter, a blind man, a paralyzed man and a captain who Jesus' commends for amazing faith. Each story reveals Jesus' miraculous power and love for people.

Jesus Feeds the Hungry: Beginner's Bible series
Zonderkidz
5300 Patterson Avenue SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
9780310725190, $3.99, http://zondervan.com

In "Jesus Feeds the Hungry," children see a famous Bible story unveiled where Jesus preaches to large crowds of people. Youngsters learn what happens when a "young boy offers five loaves of bread and two fish to Jesus." They see Jesus' miraculous increase of a small amount of food into such an abundance over five thousand people are fed with enough left over to fill "twelve large baskets." http://media.zondervan.com/media/samples/pdf/9780310725190_samptxt.pdf

The Beginner's Bible Super-Duper, Mighty, Jumbo Coloring Book: Beginner's Bible series
Zonderkidz
5300 Patterson Avenue SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
9780310724988, $5.99, http://zondervan.com

In "The Beginner's Bible" jumbo coloring book, children color Bible story characters and events from The Beginner's Bible series of classic bible stories. Pages begin with the "Creation story" in Genesis, then "Adam and Eve's" story and other Old Testament tales. The New Testament coloring pages begin with the birth of Jesus and end with the "Good Samaritan" with other familiar stories sandwiched in between. http://zondervan.com/9780310724988

The Beginner's Bible Super-Duper, Mighty, Jumbo Activity Book: Beginner's Bible series
Zonderkidz
5300 Patterson Avenue SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
9780310724995, $5.99, http://zondervan.com

Perhaps the most fun is the "...Jumbo Activity Book..." also from the Beginner's Bible series that teaches children key Bible stories, characters and events. Here children choose from "circle the word" puzzles, to mazes such as the "Up-to-Down" maze where youngsters "trace the long snake's tail." Or they find items in pictures such as "Adam and Eve" hidden in Eden's foliage, or tracing the path to the "Promised Land." Another fun one is to find and circle all the things God gave to Elijah in the desert and more. http://zondervan.com/9780310724995

Any of the books inspire and encourage children's faith, their familiarity with and knowledge of the Bible. Their inexpensive price makes them an excellent choice for Christmas as well as any time of year.

Unstoppable: The Incredible Power of Faith in Action
Nick Vujicic
WaterBrook Publishers
12265 Oracle Blvd. Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
9780307730886, $19.99, http://waterbrookmultnomah.com

Nick Vujicic, a young evangelist and world-wide motivational speaker's new release "Unstoppable," arrives in book stores October 2nd. In his second book Nick shares how he combined action with the "power of faith," for what he says is a "ridiculously good life, despite his disabilities."

However, it wasn't always like that for Nick. As a young boy he felt so alone, devastated and without purpose he entertained thoughts of suicide. He thought no one else "hurt like he did...faced such insurmountable problems...or was bullied as much..." and he was right, for few are born without arms and legs as he was. Although his parents loved and cared for him Nick couldn't see a future for himself. He looked on his "lack of limbs as proof that God didn't love him."

Then Nick's perspective changed. In his teens he found Christ and learned God did love him, that He hadn't made him without arms and legs to "punish" him. Instead, he came to realize God doesn't make mistakes. "...He always has a plan..." for everyone, even for him.

Through mounting faith, growing confidence and a motto his parents taught him - "One day at a time with Christ by our side" - Nick learned to persevere in spite of daunting obstacles. Then with his parent's encouragement Nick began to "reach out to fellow students...trusting they would accept him." Students were not only inspired by what he said and did "...some even thought he was funny," and Nick gained needed self-assurance.

From there Nick began to soar. He laid aside his fears and insecurities to emphasize what he calls "doing instead of stewing...focusing on solutions, not problems." In so doing he "walked the talk," that would soon "...inspire and encourage others... with his message of faith, hope and love..."

His journey of faith continues to unfold in ways Nick never dreamed possible. From learning to use his "flipper" to do things most do with their hands and feet, to using a surf board, playing volley ball, basketball and making YouTube videos that encourage others. In addition to delivering inspirational messages to over four million people worldwide and marrying his beautiful wife Kanae in 2010, in spite of being less than what he called "...the standard issue Prince Charming."

Nick's inspirational story of faith and perseverance has something for everyone, regardless of the trail or challenge. Although he "...credits his success to the power that's unleashed when faith takes action," his powerful story, written with humor and raw honesty, reveals why Nick is one of the most sought after motivational speakers and evangelists in the world today for children, youth and adults.

If your spirits are low and need a lift, read Nick's story, see his joy in the Lord and your life will never be the same. Life Without Limbs: www.LifeWithoutLimbs.org

The Ambition
Lee Strobel
Zondervan Publishers
5300 Patterson Avenue SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49530
9780310292685, $14.99, www.zondervan.com

Lee Strobel, former atheist-turned-Christian, best known for the chart-topping, nonfiction "Case" series on faith, belief and Christianity, moves into the fiction arena with "The Ambition," an edgy debut mystery. He draws on years of real-life experience as an investigative reporter for The Chicago Tribune to write an insider tale of political greed, corruption, gambling addiction and payola. The book opens with a mob hit on an unsuspecting bookie.

When the naive bookie pulled into the dim two-car garage, he was grateful no one knew about his half-brothers house on the outskirts of Chicago's "Cook County." He had just learned the Bugatti brothers suspected he held money out when he paid his "street tax." He had to admit he'd stiffed them a little, but he was sure they wouldn't notice or miss it - however they had. Now he needed to lie low long enough to figure out his next move and he had to stay out of sight until he did.

He walked toward the house anticipating a "cold one" from his brother's fridge when he saw "out of the corner of his eye...a blur streaking toward him..." Seconds after the hollow-point bullet struck, his lifeless body was flung "...sprawling into three plastic trash bins along the garage wall..."

The moonlight illuminated mobster Nick Moretti's tight smile, evidence of his delight at an uncomplicated, clean job. Moretti couldn't know that the single kill shot would figuratively ricochet and entrap a corrupt judge, a power-hungry pastor, a gambling addicted reporter on a mission for the Pulitzer and a secret tape that could shatter the lives of each.

Strobel's extensive nonfiction experience, his unusually crisp and confident writing style is displayed throughout. In an exciting debut mystery of mega-churches, mobsters, murder and mayhem, especially with his portrayal of Tom Sullivan, an attorney who owes the wrong people favors.

His well-developed characters engage readers who come to care about them. Whether it's a pastor in search of power, a judge on the take, an attorney fighting an addiction or a rocky romantic relationship with a partner who draws an un-crossable line, Strobel captures reader's interest.

The authentic character specific dialogue combines with a storyline that carries a strong, but realistic Biblical worldview without preaching. His portrayals of the church, the members who lead and attend, are genuine and realistic in his portrayal of their common faults.

This fast-paced tale begins with a bang, slows a bit in the middle and picks up the pace as it speeds toward an unexpected climax in a compelling tale of suspense, corruption and political intrigue. It's an excellent debut work from an award-winning author I hope to read more from soon.

The Law of Happiness
Dr. Henry Cloud
Howard Books
216 Centerview Drive, Suite 303
Brentwood, TN 37027
9781439176993, $19.99, www.amazon.com

In the "The Law of Happiness: How Spiritual Wisdom & Modern Science Can Change Your Life" Dr. Cloud mixes scientific research with Scripture to define what happiness is and how it can be found. He was surprised to find while reading the new research on "positive psychology," it felt like he was reading the Bible. It was like someone took the research data "...laid the Bible on top..." and they fit together almost like a hand in a glove.

That "perfect fit" made him feel as if he were on a "spiritual journey." One that revealed faith and ultimate fulfillment "...are not found in circumstances, achievements, material possessions, or bank accounts like many think. Instead, happiness has more to do with choices, decisions and what we choose to invest ourselves in, which the Bible has a lot to say about.

He uses the analogy of turning on a computer to demonstrate. If the right button isn't pushed on a computer, the computer doesn't turn on. In a similar fashion, he writes "...humans are wired in such a way that when properly 'turned on,' they get happier."

Dr. Cloud shares what he calls the "science of happiness" with readers, which are the underlying principles and practices of the "law of happiness." He starts with a mantra we're all familiar with that begins with - "if only." These statements could end in hundreds of different ways, "...if only I could...would...were..." yet they all lead to "...then I'll be happy."

According to Dr. Cloud, the "if only's" never turn the power on, they're the wrong button to push. The "if only's" keep the focus on why we aren't happy and ignores what we could realistically do to make ourselves happy.

Statistical research supports his thinking:

Circumstances contribute 10% toward happiness.
Genetics, our internal makeup, accounts for 50%.
40% of happiness is "directly under our control."

Since much of what makes us happy is something we do or don't do that means our behavior, thoughts and everyday practices are factors in our happiness or unhappiness. Readers learn about thirteen behaviors God and science agree upon, from setting limits and goals to connecting, giving, forgiving, comparing, calling, faith and change. These tools reveal "...how spiritual wisdom and modern science can change your life," which is the subtitle of Dr. Cloud's work.

This little book, while a quick read, carries a big message that reveals "...how faith integrates with life..." to produce happiness. In other words, happiness is a "by-product" of a life lived according to God's principles. This is a book worth reading and meditating on, also an excellent size for a gift.

Gail Welborn, Reviewer
www.examiner.com/christian-book-review-in-seattle/gail-welborn


Gary's Bookshelf

Dial Emmy for Murder
Eileen Davidson
Signet
c/o Penguin Group USA
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
www.penguin.com
9780451228235, $6.99, www.amazon.com

This second novel in the soap opera mystery series begins with a dead body that shows up at the Emmy Awards show in the middle of an award presentation. The story is a fun mystery set against the backdrop of the soap opera world. Alex Peterson is back, along with many interesting characters. She is once again paired with Detective Frank Jakes to solve the murder. As the tale unfolds, so does the relationship between the two as they are on the trail of the killer. There are several conflicts that make this another pleasurable read. This is a delightful series.

The Postcard Killers
James Patterson and Liza Marklund
Grand Central
c/o Hachette Book Group USA
1271 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.HatchetteBookGroupUSA.com
978145550663X, $9.99 www.amazon.com

After the book "Private" that was pretty slow and boring, I am happy to say this one is a great read and is a typical Patterson thrill ride. Detective Jacob Kanon of the NYPD is on a case that takes him to many different cities of Europe on the trail of a killer. This time it's personal be3cause one of the first victims was his daughter. The novel is a tense roller coaster ride of suspense that will have readers turning the pages.

Santa Fe Edge
Stuart Woods
Signet
c/o Penguin Group USA
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
www.penguin.com
9780399154904, $9.99 www.amazon.com

I thought when I saw this book. Oh good, something other than a Stone Barrington and his numerous trips to Elaine's. Well that's about the only good thing I can say. I am tired of Barbara, Ed Eagles former wife who once again tried to have him killed. This, I think, is the third time she has attempted to get rid of her former husband. I am also worn-out with Teddy Fay who now seems to show up in many of Woods' novels with no real purpose in the story. The pacing is pretty even but I am just bored because this one is a re-hash of other books he has written. I think it's time to come up with some new characters and ideas.

The Season of Risks
Susan Hubbard
Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.simonandSchuster.com
978183427, $14.00, www.amazon.com

This third novel in Hubbard's vampire series has a lot of conflicts going on that move the story along at a nice pace. The characters are very different from other genre fare because she depicts the people with real life situations and they are not monsters, as we are used to reading. One of the characters is running for president of the United States. He has to keep secret that he is a vampire. The work is filled with many things fans of the genre will not agree with, but she handles them so well with explanations of why things are the way they are so that the complaints are bogus. I like this series and want to see where the author goes next time.

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future the First 25 Years
With Kevin J. Anderson executive editor
Galaxy Press LLC
7051 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, California 90028
www.galaxypress.com
978015921284107, $29.95, www.amazon.com

L. Ron Hubbard had an idea that is now over twenty five years old. The concept was to bring new writers into the field of science fiction. So he created "The Writers of the Future" contest. So far more than 700 novels and 3,000 short stories have been published by authors who participated in the contest. The list of writers is huge with so many different books published. This is a look back over the last twenty five years in pictures and prose that celebrated Hubbard's crowning achievement. Readers will be astounded at how many writers have come through the program.

Next Incredible Dating Adventures
Angela LaTorre
CHB Media
3039 Needle Palm Drive
Edgewater, Fl 32141 3866909295
www.chbmediaonline.com
9780982281925, $12.99, www.amazon.com

We've all had bad dating experiences. This is one lady's adventures with being single. There are many memorable men she writes about. One in particular is the man who values his dogs more than the company of a good female. The pieces are interesting and many will make you laugh out loud. All are true stories of men she has dated for the last couple of years. Readers should take this book as a resource of red flags of the wrong type of person to have a relationship with.

Poetry to Feed the Spirit a Contemporary Anthology
Poets of Central Florida
CHB Media
3039 Needle Palm Drive
Edgewater, Fl 32141
www.chbmediaonline.com
9780982281918, $10.99, www.amazon.com

There are many talented writers who have written scores of interesting poems. You do not have to be from Central Florida to enjoy these fascinating bits of poetry. There are many different styles and subjects. This is a great anthology to add to anyone's poetry collection.

Rules of the Lake
Stories by Irene Ziegler
Southern Methodist University Press
P O Box 750415, Dallas, Texas 75275-0415
www.irenziegler.com
9780870744471, $19.95, www.amazon.com

Before Disney, Florida was a very different place. These are stories that take place in that time era. I loved the other attractions the author writes about and she conveys the other Florida very well. Her characters are very interesting and appear to be very innocent. This is a book for anyone who would like to know what the state was like before Mickey Mouse and Disney.

The Secrets of Paradise Bay
Devon Vaughn Archer
Urban Books LLC
78 East Industry Court, Deer Park, NY 11729
www.urbanbooks.net
9781601622198, $14.95, www.amazon.com

This author has written another great novel of romance that races along with well defined characters and many conflicts that drive the story along with a satisfying ending. Archer is also an author to read for budding authors to learn how to create detailed characters. This is the type of book you do not want to put down and are sad to see it end.

Their Last Suppers Legend of Time and Their Final Meals
Andrew Caldwell
Legacy Publishing Services Inc
1883 Lee Road, Winter Park, Florida 32789
www.LegacyBookPublishing.com
9781934449332, $17.50, www.amazon.com

Ever wonder what the last meal someone famous had before they died? Author Andrew Caldwell reveals these things and more in an interesting book that is sure to be a first in a series. Some of the people he writes about are Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana. There are also many recipes for the foods each person ate.

Gary Roen
Reviewer


Gloria's Bookshelf

Dead Scared
S. J. Bolton
Minotaur Books
c/o St. Martin's Press
175 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10010
9780312600532, $25.99, www.minotaurbooks.com

The brief prologue sets the scene for the reader: Near midnight; one of the tallest towers in Cambridge, England; D.I. Mark Joesbury, racing up the stairs to its roof; and a young woman perched near the ledge at the top. And then the reader is brought back eleven days in time to see how they got there, with a 1st person p.o.v. of D.C. Lacey Flint, which alternates with third-person perspectives. Flint has been "loaned out" from the Southwark Police to the Special Crimes Directorate of the Metropolitan Police which deals with covert ops, typically being sent on "difficult and dangerous situations." As we are introduced to them, the slightly flirtatious banter underlying their meetings hints at the least of a possible romantic entanglement between them at some point in the relatively recent past.

Lacey goes undercover as a student at Cambridge University after the latest in a number of suicides, with a suspicion that there is more going on than meets the eye. The death was only the latest of three suicides during the current academic year. The only one outside of her police colleagues who knows the truth is Dr. Evi Oliver, head of student counseling. The belief is that there is "something decidedly sinister" happening. Lacey's remit is to "keep a lookout for any unhealthy subculture that might be unduly influencing young people."

Initially Lacey feels out of her element: "I knew I'd never get used to it," in a place where "Wordsworth and Wilberforce weren't characters from history but alumni." But she is there to do a job, and it becomes increasingly urgent. Within several days, one more death occurs. And further investigation indicates that there have been a total of nineteen suicides over the past five years, far more than the general statistics on suicide would bear out. And the manner of death chosen is not what might be expected, including self-immolation by one girl and another who'd decapitated herself. As the days go on, whatever is going on threatens to ensnare Lacey herself.

This is a book at once not an easy read and yet difficult to put down, much more so on both counts as the book progresses. The fifth novel from Ms. Bolton, this is the first I have read, but it will certainly not be the last. It is a nail-biter, beautifully written, and highly recommended.

V is for Vengeance
Sue Grafton
Berkley
c/o Penguin Group USA
375 Hudson St., NY, NY 10014
9780425250563, $7.99, www.penguin.com

In her twenty-second novel in the "alphabet" series, Sue Grafton has fashioned an immensely pleasurable novel, featuring Kinsey Millhone, p.i. in Santa Teresa, California. The protagonist proclaims that "there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first." As the title would suggest, this book is all about vengeance.

At the outset Kinsey's next door neighbor, "bona fide mother substitute" and some-time assistant/amateur partner in detection, 88-year-old Henry, has to leave town for a short while for a family emergency, so Kinsey is more on her own this time around than usual.

The first page of the second chapter describes the two black eyes and broken nose sustained on Kinsey's thirty-eighth birthday, on May 5, 1988 [the period when most of the action takes place], and the story behind that shocking birthday present takes about another 400 pages to unfold. But be assured those pages turn quickly, with a jolt or two to the reader along the way.

Things begin relatively innocently enough with Kinsey shopping at a local Nordstrom's, where she sees a woman apparently shop-lifting several pieces of very expensive merchandise. In the aftermath, when Kinsey follows a woman who she believes is an accomplice, the latter attempts to run her down as she is fleeing the store's parking lot. And from there things get much more complicated, with the reader encountering terms such as "whips," "baggers," "pickers," and "cabbies" [not in the usual connotation], terms for people in an entire "industry" about which most readers, at least those without criminal tendencies, know little or nothing.

Kinsey's first-person p.o.v. alternates periodically with some third-person p.o.v. chapters, thoughtfully headed as such. There a few moments of facetious foreshadowing, and much humorous story-telling. By the end all story lines are connected in a well-plotted and altogether terrific novel, leaving the reader only to wonder, and hope, as to what Ms. Grafton will do after the remaining four entries in this series are done.

Highly recommended.

The Collected
Brett Battles
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781480055384, $14.95, www.amazon.com

[This book is self-published, and can be ordered through Amazon, B&N or from the author, brettbattles.com, either as a paperback or an e-book ($4.99)]

Jonathan Quinn makes a welcome return in this entry in Brett Battles' wonderful series. Quinn is a freelancer known as a 'cleaner' whose job is to discreetly clean up crime scenes and the occasional body after the always possible bloodshed. His protege, Nate, has progressed to the point where he can head up jobs on his own, and as the book opens that is what he has done. He is working a job in northeastern Mexico which goes suddenly, horribly, awry, culminating in his being captured and imprisoned. The only thing making the situation even worse is that it is not actually the police who have imprisoned him.

When it becomes apparent to Quinn and his sister, Liz, who has become romantically entangled with Nate, that something is very wrong, they must figure out what has happened, and then do the necessary. Assisting Quinn, as always, is Orlando, his paramour, an Asian woman who has become vital in his life and who is a brilliant computer hacker. Things become much more complex as their investigation progresses. The suspense, a constant from nearly the first page, jumps up a few notches as the jeopardy becomes greater. The story jumps from Mexico to LA, from Sao Paulo to Phoenix and Chicago, par for the course in a Quinn book.

Quinn as a protagonist puts me in mind of no one so much as Jack Reacher [quite an accomplishment, I might add], another infinitely resourceful man who lets nothing, and no one, stand in the way of his objective. A good man to have on your side, a terrific character for a series; a superhero of a slightly different stripe. (And I loved his having named one of his characters Maddee James, real-life web-maven-to-terrific-mystery-novelists extraordinaire.)

The book ends with a cliff-hanger, and I can't wait for the next one. "The Collected" is another terrific book in the series, and is highly recommended. [Next up for me is another Quinn novel, "The Destroyed," which came out last March.]

What You Wish For
Janet Dawson
Perseverance Press
c/o Daniel & Daniel
P.O. Box 2790, McKinleyville, CA 95519
9781564745187, $15.95, www.danielpublishing.com

Lindsey Page, first introduced to readers by this author as a friend of the protagonist PI Jeri Howard in "Witness to Evil," one of ten books in that series, returns here as one of four women, friends since their college days in Berkeley, California, around whom the story revolves. Lindsey is a historian who usually writes about the 19th century American west, but whose current work-in-progress was a study of Latin American women who had emigrated to the US as a result of wars and upheavals in their native countries. One of her interviewees is a Salvadoran woman who begs Lindsey to help her find her son, taken from her at the age of two in the midst of a horrendous attack which destroyed her village and slaughtered most of its inhabitants.

The friendship of Lindsey, Gretchen, Claire and Annabel was forged when they lived in the same house while attending college. Gretchen (whose oldest child, now ready to start college, was an adoptee) has been working with an adoptive parents organization. She and Claire are cousins, both on the board of a corporation founded by their fathers

Equal parts family rifts, corporate intrigue and power plays, as well as images of a war-torn and strife-ridden foreign landscape, the book, which starts out fairly slowly as the groundwork is laid with details of each of the women's backgrounds and the path of their friendship over the years, till the pace picks up, as does the suspense, when the frequent flashbacks to Berkeley in the '70's and El Salvador in the late '80's fill in gaps in the narrative. Although coincidence initially strained credulity somewhat, that soon fades as the reader is pulled along into the story. Dual themes have to do with the past that comes back to haunt one in later years, as well as the one implied by the title: Be careful what you wish for: you might not be happy with the result.

Parenthetically, I loved the author's tip of the hat to a fellow mystery writer, Gary Niebuhr, here a retired police detective, as well as a mention of a favorite song of one character [and mine as well], Dave Brubeck's Take Five.

A thoroughly enjoyable novel, "What You Wish For" is recommended.

One Shot
Lee Child
Dell
c/o Random House Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, NY, NY 10019
9780345538192, $9.99, 800-726-0600, bantamdell.com

As I am among those looking forward to the upcoming film simply called "Jack Reacher" [or not, in view of the controversy surrounding the fact that Tom Cruise will play the lead], I thought I'd go back to the book, initially published in 2005 and now with a new "Movie Tie-In Edition," before seeing the film. I tried to put everything that's transpired in Jack Reacher's life in the years since 2005 in the recesses of my mind to come at this book fresh [so to speak].

The novel jumps right in with a scene fraught with tension: A person described only as "the man with the rifle" is putting into motion an obviously well-thought-out plan, in a scene that culminates with him using a rifle to kill five people, strangers all, each with one shot to the head, in a business area in the heartland south of Indianapolis, Indiana teeming with people leaving work into the heart of the rush hour, and then escapes scant minutes before all hell breaks loose.

Forensics give the police enough data to name a suspect, a 41-year-old US Army veteran, an infantry specialist [read "sniper"] who they quickly, in the early hours of the following morning, take into custody. Ironically, a newly minted attorney who just happens to be the daughter of the District Attorney handling the case agrees to defend the accused man at the behest of his sister. The man himself has refused to speak with anyone, prosecutors or defense attorney, other than to say "Get Jack Reacher for me." Enigmatic, to say the least, since their past encounter had been less than friendly.

Reacher himself is en route, having seen and read all about the massacre. As the author describes it: "Mostly he had rocked and swayed and dozed on buses, watching the passing scenes, observing the chaos of America . . . His life was like that. It was a mosaic of fragments. Details and contexts would fade and be inaccurately recalled, but the feelings and the experiences would weave over time into a tapestry equally full of good times and bad." And as we all now know, Reacher is an imposing man, in mind and body, and doesn't let anything stop him when on a mission, having been honorably discharged seven years ago as a major in the army, and for fourteen years an MP. (He's also a man who knows every stat about every professional baseball player who ever played for the NY Yankees.) And to steal a line from an old James Bond movie, nobody does it better.

The same could be said for Lee Child. Ingeniously plotted, wonderfully well-written, terrifically entertaining, and highly recommended.

Valley of Ashes
Cornelia Read
Grand Central Publishing
c/h Hatchette Publishing Group
237 Park Ave., NY, NY 10017
9780446511360, $24.99, www.hbgusa.com

As I again entered the world of Madeline Dare, I found myself thinking I recognized this woman. Heck, I've been this woman! Madeline, an English major and would-be journalist and/or fiction writer, is now at 32 a full-time homemaker, the mother of gorgeous one-year-old twin girls, whose housekeeping skills could use a little work.

Manhattan born and bred, she has done her penance in Syracuse, New York in the early years of her marriage, now trying to get used to life in Colorado where her husband, Dean ["Intrepid Spouse"], has a new and demanding job, one that keeps him on the road a good deal of the time. Having a bit of trouble adjusting, she thinks "There was just something about the sheer numbing expanse and tonnage of those amber waves of grain, once you'd turned your back on purple mountains' majesty . . . I wanted to be near water, preferably an ocean."

Maddie's personal history is interesting, to say the least: Her mother has just entered into her fifth marriage, and her new husband is on death row. Maddie has landed a job, on spec initially, at a free weekly paper, the Boulder New Times, as a restaurant critic, but is hopeful that real reporting lies ahead: There has been a rash of fires locally about which there is a suspicion of a serial arsonist at work. Gears suddenly change when things take a tragic and very personal turn of events, and what has till now been an enjoyable and well-written tale, with liberal doses of dry humor, becomes a suspenseful page-turner that I couldn't put down.

This is the best one yet for Cornelia Read in the series. As was the case with the last Madeline Dare novel, Invisible Boy, this one too is highly recommended.

Last Will
Liza Marklund
English language translation by Neil Smith
Emily Bestler Books/Atria
c/o Simon & Schuster
1230 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10020
9781451606942, $15.00, 800-223-2336, simonsays.com

This novel, the 6th by this author but only the second published in the US [in addition to one co-written with James Patterson], features Annika Bengtzon, reporter for the Evening Post, one of the main evening papers in Stockholm. The tale opens on a wintry evening in December, as the Nobel Prize festivities are about to begin. In the banquet hall, things suddenly take a shocking turn as shots ring out. One of the first victims is the Israeli co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine, the second a woman who is a member of the Nobel Prize Committee. Three others are also wounded as the shooter, a woman, makes her escape. Who was the main target, and who the collateral damage? If the man, does anti-Semitism come into it, or is it the fact that the work for which he was being honored dealt with controversial stem cell research? If the woman, what could possibly have been the motive?

Annika is more than just 'present at the scene:' Not only did the female victim look directly at her as she lay dying on the floor, quite near to Annika, but the woman who shot them made eye contact with her seconds before the shots were fired. As such, she is the key witness for the police, who place a gag order on her immediately. So she has exclusive information, which she cannot use, in the aftermath of which she is placed on six-month suspension from the newspaper, as well as in the sights of the killer, apparently an American assassin known as "the Kitten."

The title refers to the document prepared by/for Alfred Nobel, bits and pieces of whose life are interspersed, referencing his legacy, both as he saw it and as it has perhaps been perverted.

Annika, married and with two small children, has been somewhat ambivalent about her impending move to a country home, as well as going through rough patches in her marriage. Now she is forced to spend more time at home, with the resulting increased tension there. This is made worse by the fact that her husband, a government employee, is actively working on legislation aimed at, in Annika's view, at least, "restricting people's private space with surveillance and more legislation," a subject apparently dear to the heart of this author [as it is to many others, obviously, now more than ever].

This is an exciting, well-written tale, with intriguing characters, and it is recommended.

Dead and Buried
Stephen Booth
Sphere
c/o Little Brown UK, 100
Victoria Embankment, London, UK EC4Y 0DY
www.littlebrown.co.uk www.amazon.com
9781847444813, 17.99 BPS; 34.99CA$; $26.00

[This book is presently only available in/through the UK/Canada, available in the US in April 1, 2013 from Little, Brown]

As this book opens, firefighters in the Peak District of England are fighting what seems to be a losing battle, trying to contain the flames engulfing this part of Derbyshire, with smoke covering acres and acres of the moors from the catastrophic wildfires that have been springing up, the worst seen in the area in decades, many undoubtedly the result of arson. But to D.S. Ben Cooper, his more immediate problem are the buried items found by the crew working one of the sites, and which appear to be clothing and other items - including a wallet and credit cards - which had belonged to a young couple who had seemingly disappeared over two years ago, in the middle of a snowstorm. They had last been seen in a local pub, with no trace found since, and the case, while no longer active, is as cold as it could be.

The Major Crime Unit is called in, and DS Diane Fry, Ben's old nemesis, is put in charge. [Diane had been his immediate supervisor before his promotion to detective sergeant.] Diane, for her part, couldn't be happier that she had, as she thought, put Derbyshire behind her, her career taking her on an upward path - - she has been with the East Midlands Special Operations Unit for six months, and is less than thrilled to be back again. In a bit of one-upsmanship, she soon discovers a dead body in the old abandoned pub - - Ben's office had received a call about a break-in there, but had yet to investigate.

With Ben's upcoming marriage to Liz Petty, a civilian crime scene examiner, coming up in a few months, the distraction of the wedding plans in which his fiancee is immersed causes him not a little irritation. Ben and the rest of his CID team at Derbyshire Constabulary E Division have their hands full, with the two investigations proceeding simultaneously, although Diane makes clear that the old case is her jurisdiction. Behind everything, the raging fires continue, a constant backdrop underlying everything which follows. The author's meticulous descriptions of the landscape make for a visceral sense of place.

Mr. Booth has once again created a suspenseful scenario, with many a twist and turn. This elegantly written novel is the 12th entry in the Cooper and Fry series, and at the end this reader reluctantly closed the book, fervently hoping it won't be the last.

Recommended.

The Devil's Edge
Stephen Booth
Little, Brown
c/o Hatchette Publishing Group
237 Park Ave., NY, NY 10017
9780751545647, $10.95, www.littlebrown.com

Devil's Edge is a fairly insular world, defined, geographically at least, by the cliff edges which surround it. This book is, in a similar way, equally circumscribed. As the reader is told on the opening page, "It was one of the drawbacks of living in the countryside. Too much of the outside world intruding. Too many things it was impossible to keep out." In this novel, the outside world, and the aspects of it one would most like to keep out, intrudes in the worst way. On the eastern fringe of the Peak District, in the village of Riddings, in rural Derbyshire, there has been a rash of break-ins. The burglars have been dubbed The Savages by the press. The newest incidents escalate the anxiety when they suddenly turn deadly. The author speaks of the residents having sought sanctuary in the rural haven, noting, however, that "everyone had monsters in their lives." Suspicion turns from looking for an outside group of burglars to someone from within the community, targeting the victims, for reasons far more personal. Recently promoted D.S. Ben Cooper is assigned the investigation. He, particularly, believes it is not the work of The Savages, being much more meticulously planned and leaving no trace of the culprit[s].

D.S. Diane Fry, formerly with the West Midlands Police "in the days before she transferred to yokel land," is brought back into the squad to take over the investigation after an almost unimaginable turn of events changes Ben Cooper's life forever. Despite the past ambivalence of their relationship, where they were both vying for the same promotion, their usually well-concealed respect for each other is here on display.

The author's descriptions bring the land to palpable life, e.g., "the distant rocky outcrops seemed to change shape. They slid slowly sideways, merged and divided, their outlines shifting from smooth to jagged to a distinctive silhouette. It was all the effect of altering angle and perspective. With each step, a transformation took place in the landscape, a gradual reveal like the slow drawing aside of a curtain. At a point halfway across the flats, a split rock he hadn't noticed before came into view. As it emerged from behind a larger boulder, its two halves slowly parted and turned, like the hands of a clock creeping past noon." Simply gorgeous. [The landscape, and the writing, that is.]

Recommended.

Gloria Feit
Reviewer


Gorden's Bookshelf

Visions in Death
J.D. Robb
G.P. Putnam's Sons
c/o Penguin Group USA
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
9780425203002, $7.99, www.amazon.com

Visions in Death is a gritty and intense action detective novel that takes place in a near future New York. A brutal serial killer is beating, raping and strangling women to death. When he is finished he strips them, poses them in public and, finally, cuts out their eyes. The graphic story is filled with the individual psychological trauma and back history of the characters giving the graphic storyline more depth and detail than the reader might first expect.

Detective Eve Dallas and her partner Peabody are called to a crime scene in Central Park. They find a naked woman on the rocks next to the pond with a red cord tied around her neck and no eyes. Dallas instinctively knows that this will be just the first in a series of victims. The next day a psychic shows up at the station with details of the crime that no one other than the police and killer would know. Dallas checks out the psychic and discovers that her visions seem to be legitimate. Dallas uses the media to get into the mind of the brutal killer and force him to make a mistake. Unfortunately, this also makes every woman involved in the investigation a potential target.

Robb's Detective Eve Dallas series of intense near future novels are a real joy for the gritty mystery reader. The stories are fast paced and cover all of the expected twists for a near future Noir type adult tale. Visions of Death has a uniquely linked and detailed back story giving this book's characters more depth than most stories of this type. The only weakness with the characterizations are the missing gray areas, the characters would feel more real with a bit more ambiguity in their mores. Visions in Death is an easy recommendation for the adult reader.

Heat Wave
Richard Castle
Hyperion
114 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011
9781401323820, $19.99, www.amazon.com

Stephen J. Cannel is best known for his producing and writing of TV shows but he is also a very good writer of stories. A few years back he created the TV show Castle where a writer follows a NY police detective to get material to write novels. To correspond with the TV show, a book was written to mimic the mythical book in the TV show. Heat Wave is the result. The book is pure lighthearted mystery fun and for those who watched the TV show it is filled with small tidbits lifted from the hour shows. One the surface it appears like tongue-in-cheek schlock but when you get into the details of the mystery it becomes a well rounded detective story. The added layering of shared details between the TV show in the book creates a truly unique and fun story.

During a boiling hot NYC heat wave, NY detective Nikki Heat is called out to a body, possible jumper, that landed in the middle of a sidewalk cafe. The body is real estate mogul Mathew Starr. It is soon discovered that Starr didn't jump from his balcony but was thrown. A reporter, Jonathan Rouke, has wrangled a ride along with Heat. He has convinced Nikki's bosses that the story he will write is worth letting him follow a detective through an investigation. His presence is a hindrance and a help but mostly it is a slightly romantic distraction for Heat. Soon more bodies are dropping and Heat's prodding and poking makes her a target for death.

Heat Wave is a short fun detective novel. A perfect light read for the mystery buff. The short novel is frequently missing in contemporary writing and this novel, novella, is a nice contrast. When you consider the beautiful tie-in with the Castle TV series, it becomes a possible forerunner of what can be done with the joining of different media formats. The blended multimedia story will be part of our future and Heat Wave is a hint of what might develop in the future. Unlike the book versions of screenplays that the movie studios put out or the authorized fan books, this book is a real integrated tale between written and video stories. Expect that at some future time you will find TV series DVDs packaged together with an associated book. The blending of multimedia is just too good of an entertainment.

S.A. Gorden, Reviewer
www.paulbunyan.net/users/gsirvio/content.html


Harwood's Bookshelf

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
Janet Reitman
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
215 Park Avenue South
New York NY 10003
9780618883028, $28.00, www.amazon.com

Janet Reitman's detailed account of L. Ron Hubbard's life before he made the decision to start a religion because, as he told John Campbell and others, "that's where the money is," leaves little doubt that Hubbard was a pathological liar with diminished capacity to distinguish between reality and fantasy. When a fellow pulp writer, after listening to Hubbard's tales of spending seven years as a wartime marine, four years as an Amazon explorer, three years as a hunter in Africa, and various other fanciful adventures, commented (p. 8), "Ron, you're eighty-four years old, aren't you?" Hubbard "blew his stack." Most people occasionally lie, usually when lying seems the most expedient solution to an immediate problem. But when they are caught lying, their attitude tends to be one of embarrassment and resolve not to be caught again. A liar whose reaction to being called out is violent outrage thereby reveals that he has no more ability to be truthful or even consistent than the 2012 Republican nominee for President of the United States.

Reitman chronicles Hubbard's coining of nonsense words such as "therapeutic auditing," "clears" and "engrams," to validate his invention of the pseudomedical scam of Dianetics. She recognizes Dianetics as profit-motivated humbuggery. What she does not seem to grasp is that Hubbard's replacing the pseudomedical delusion of psychoanalysis with the pseudomedical hoax of Dianetics was comparable with Michel Gauquelin's replacing the pseudoscientific cultural fantasy of astrology with the pseudoscientific masturbation fantasy of astrobiology. The absence of Thomas Szasz from her index or bibliography perhaps explains her unawareness of the fraudulence of identifying sympathetic listening as medicine when it is practised by a psychiatrist, but not when a bartender or a taxi driver does the same thing.

When Dianetics went belly-up in 1952, and Hubbard lost all of the cult's assets, including the right to its name, he utilized what he called an electropsychometer, essentially a polygraph, a device that unteachables continue to pretend is an effective lie detector (there is no such thing as a lie detector), to start a new scam that he called Scientology. Whereas Dianetics was adapted from the existing delusion of psychiatry, Scientology was a continuation of Hubbard's earlier career as a writer of science fiction. He appropriated the religious concept of an immortal soul, but renamed it a "thetan" and equated it with a noncorporeal extraterrestrial. He declared that thetans had existed "long before the beginning of time" (p. 40) and, after wandering the thirteen-billion-year-old universe for sixty trillion years (sic, p. 49), had come to earth, settled in volcanos, and emerged to in effect "possess" human beings and other living things. The initial purpose of Scientology, before it become economically expedient to call it a religion, was to restore the individual freedom that the thetans had suppressed, and drive the thetans into the metaphorical wilderness.

Despite referring to Hubbardism as a religion in her book's title, Reitman acknowledges (p. xiii) that, "Whether or not Scientology is a religion is a matter of enduring debate." She explains that it "withholds key aspects of its central theology from all but its most exalted followers. This would be akin to the Catholic Church telling only a select number of the faithful that Jesus Christ died for their sins." Actually that is not the best analogy she could have come up with. Scientology is as Hubbard-focused as Catholicism is Jesus-focused, and every bit as impervious to reality in its virtual deification of its figurehead. But she is right that (p. xiv), "Unique among modern religions, Scientology charges members for every service, book and course offered, promising greater and greater spiritual enlightenment with every dollar spent." I recall that, when I was lured to an interview with a Scientologist (although the interviewer's status was not mentioned in the ad) by a promise of a free I.Q. test, I was offered various Scientology publications at prices that eventually dropped to two shillings (20 cents) but not to zero, since that would have set a dangerous precedent for a scam whose whole purpose was fleecing suckers.

Reitman quotes Senator Nick Xenophon, who described Scientology (p. xiv) as a "criminal organization," and Isaac Asimov (p. 29), who called it "gibberish." She reports the opinion of psychologist and ex-Scientologist Barbara Klowden, who (p. 36) "believed that Hubbard suffered from manic depression with paranoiac tendencies. . . . carried away by feelings of omnipotence and talking all the time of grandiose schemes." Saturday Evening Post reporter James Phelan wrote (p. 60) that the only difference between Hubbard and an "old-time snake oil peddler" was that "there is nothing old-time about L. Ron Hubbard." An FBI agent wrote a margin note on one of Hubbard's missives (p. 50), "Appears mental." Reitman (p. 62) portrays the transformation of Scientology from "an alternative to psychotherapy" into "a highly regimented parallel universe." And (p. 58) she contrasts the Scientologists' posthumous description of their creator as the "kind and benevolent Friend of Man," with "the paranoid and increasingly reclusive narcissist . . . dismissive, punishing, and, at his worst, cruel."

Hubbard urged his followers (p. 62) to "hammer out of existence any philosophy or technique that might compete with his own." That explains why Scientologists are so hostile to psychotherapy, which they refuse to recognize as a mirror image of Hubbard's own Dianetics scam, which science fiction writer Jack Williamson described (p. 29) as, "a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology." Christian Scientists similarly denounce Mesmeric talk therapy ("malicious animal magnetism") when it is practised by anyone but themselves.

Recovered Scientologist Helen O'Brian, author of Dianetics in Limbo, declared (p. 55) that Hubbard's discourses evolved "from factual recall to imaginative invention," and from there to "pontification." But the strongest denunciation came from the Australian Medical Association, whose 173-page report declared (p. 61) that, "the evidence has shown its theories to be fantastic and impossible, its principles perverted and ill-founded, and its techniques debased and harmful. . . . a delusional belief system, based on fiction and fallacies and propagated by falsehood and deception. . . . a crazy and dangerous edifice."

Hubbard was not so much a plagiarist as a narcissist who genuinely believed that any idea he appropriated originated with himself. In claiming absurdly inflated membership of his cult, it would not have crossed his mind that he was taking a lesson from the Mormons, who habitually exaggerate their two-million membership to seven times that number. Scientologist websites still claim a membership of millions worldwide. But (p. xvi), "a survey conducted by researchers at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, determined that there might be only twenty-five thousand American Scientologists," while the Scientologists' own International Association reported total membership as forty thousand.

Reitman does not identify Hubbard as the creator of the SLAPP concept, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, that continues to be Scientology's primary strategy for silencing critics by suppressing free speech. But he may have been the first person to utilize SLAPP. She reports (p. 46) his instructions to his followers, "The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway . . . will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. . . . If possible, of course, ruin him utterly." When Time magazine ran a cover story in 1991 calling Scientology "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power" (pp. xvii-xviii), Scientology sued and lost, but only after costing the publisher millions of dollars. And when I wrote a paper critical of Scientology, the cult had its mindslaves send me at least 200 booby-trapped emails in three days, forcing me to change my email address and never again allow it to be published even in skeptical and freethought journals.

At the height of his paranoia, Hubbard wrote a policy letter entitled "The Responsibilities of Leaders," in which (p. 129), using euphemisms such as "dull thud" and "glorious blaze," he authorized his underlings to do anything necessary to protect him, including murder and arson. A Scientology senior executive stated (p. 131) that, while it would have been an act of sacrilege to disobey L. Ron Hubbard, "some of us would still not do the most awful things Hubbard talked about as they violated our sense of right and wrong just too much. DM [David Miscavige], on the other hand, would blindly, and violently, follow such orders." The orders Miscavige blindly followed (p. 133) included torture, intimidation, and interrogation techniques that would have made Dick Cheney, Al Capone, or the Marquis de Sade proud. Reitman makes a strong case that it was Miscavige's equation of Hubbard's every word with sacred scripture that propelled him into a position to purge all opposition and become Hubbard's successor as the cult's "he who must be obeyed" absolute dictator, a status he retains twenty-six years after Hubbard's death.

Reitman devotes a whole chapter to "The Seduction of Tom Cruise." Cruise is best known today as the actor who outraged millions of fans of the TV series, Mission Impossible, by making a series of movies that had no more connection with the series than the movie, Sex and the Single Girl, had with Helen Gurley Brown's bestselling cookbook of the same name. According to the author of Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, Cruise modeled the character he played in those movies on David Miscavige. Future generations are more likely to remember Cruise as the prize mark who was brainwashed into becoming a shill for the confidence swindle fleecing him.

Reitman draws attention (p. 282) to Cruise's "1994 performance as the sexually ambiguous Lestat in Interview with a Vampire," which included an embrace between Cruise and Brad Pitt that (in my view) only an actor comfortable with all-male intimacy could have made believable. She reports (p. 276), "That Miscavige seemed so smitten with the actor was shocking to longtime associates. . . . But something in DM changed after that meeting with Cruise." She avoids suggesting an intimate relationship between Scientology's Svengali and its male Trilby, perhaps on account of the cult's propensity for SLAPP suits. She does report, "That the story told within the private world [of Hubbardism] is that David Miscavige . engineered the dissolution of Tom Cruise's marriage to Nicole Kidman." The explanation offered is that Kidman was regarded by the cult hierarchy as a Suppressive Person, their term for non-mindslaves. Reitman makes no mention of the alternative theory, that Kidman initiated the separation out of recognition that allowing her children to be raised as Scientologists would constitute child abuse.

Cruise got as far as Operating Thetan level 3, the stage at which recruits were introduced to "the hidden truths that he'd been promised." His reaction was (p. 281) that, "He freaked out and was like, What the fuck is this science fiction shit?" Cruise separated himself from the cult for a number of years, but in 1999 Miscavige assigned a specialist to "recover" him, and by 2002 Cruise was back with an Operating Thetan classification of OT 4. A recovered Scientologist reported (p. 287) that, "He had that same passion I'd once had. . . . It's a phase you go through in your development as a zealot." The possibility that Miscavige was romantically fixated is not mentioned. Observable reality is (p. 290) that Cruise "was now Scientology's main cash cow. In 2004 Cruise gave close to $3 million to Scientology, with much more promised. . . . In the leader's mind, Cruise could be a one-man 'war chest,' the sole funder of the church's expansion."

I must draw attention to one tremendous gaffe. Reitman describes a Hubbard assistant (p. 52) as a "former professional Australian-rules soccer player." First, she is referring to a time when there was no such thing as a professional football player in Australia. Two star players of one major league team earned about the same salary as a counter jumper during the football season, and spent the remaining six months of each year operating a greengrocery shop. More significantly, soccer and Australian Rules football are two totally different games, as dissimilar as soccer and the mobile wrestling in Ned Kelly armor that Americans call football.

It is doubtful that Scientology could have survived the death of its founding Fuhrer if it had not found a successor every bit as totalitarian, paranoid, megalomaniacal and unrestrained by any Hippocratic "first do no harm" limitation as Hubbard himself. Its best chance of surviving the death of Miscavige may depend on finding a successor as totalitarian, paranoid, megalomaniacal and unrestrained as the current Uberreichsfuhrer. And Miscavige has so effectively eliminated potential competitors that the person with the best chance of succeeding him is Tom Cruise, a credible spokes-figurehead but something less than a skilled cult Capo. Will this definitive expose of Scientology as (p. 48), "equal parts of science fiction, Dianetics (with 'auditing', 'preclears' and engrams), and plain jabberwocky," fulfill a Skeptic magazine resident reviewer's prediction that it will wipe the cult from the face of the earth? Let me offer some analogies.

The discovery that planets and stars are lumps of rock and gas, not gods, has not wiped out astrology. The discovery that DNA comparison has falsified the claim on which the cult stands or falls, that Native Americans are descended from the alleged lost tribes of Israel, has not wiped out Mormonism. The discovery that more than a dozen other virgin-born savior gods rose from the dead, usually on the third day, centuries before Jesus, had not wiped out Christianity. The verification that no ESP experiment conducted by proper scientific methodology has ever produced a positive result, has not wiped out parapsychology. The calculation that travel to earth from the closest star system to our own would take 500 years one-way, and from the closest star system that could conceivably house intelligent life over 5,000 years, has not wiped out UFOlogy. The discovery that its leaders in Congress are hell-bent on abolishing the social safety net that is the only thing keeping the old, the sick, and the unintentionally unemployed alive, has not wiped out the Republican Party. And the discovery that all claims of a god revealing its existence have been traced to the same bible that contains fourteen assurances that the earth is flat, has not wiped out religion. Are Scientologists more amenable to falsifying evidence than the rest of the human race? Anyone who thinks so was conspicuously absent when P. T. Barnum really needed him.

Nonetheless, we can hope. After all, the first photographs of the surface of Mars did wipe out the canals delusion.

Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists Are Missing the Target
John Lennox
Lion Hudson Pic, Wilkinson House
Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England
978074593229, $14.95

Millions of infants and infantoids believe in Mother Goose. They do so because they have not reached a level of intellectual maturity to make them aware that information from their usually reliable sources "aint necessarily so." Any person who writes what he seriously believes to be a logical, science-based argument for the reality of Mother Goose, which can be summarized, "Hans Christian Andersen said so, and the Word of Hans Andersen is inerrant, revealed truth," has similarly not reached an adult level of intellectual maturity.

Superstitious, scientifically illiterate doublethinkers like John Lennox, Alister McGrath, and Alvin Plantinga use circular reasoning to delude themselves that they have debunked the evidence falsifying religion that even the chronically godphuqt encounter on a daily basis. As McGrath did in his attempt to rebut Richard Dawkins, Plantinga in a blurb quoted on the back cover accuses what he calls "New Atheists" of the incompetence and inadequacies he sees in the mirror. And Lennox, after debating Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Victor Stenger, and Michael Shermer, came away with no awareness that all four had done to him what Clarence Darrow did to William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes trial. The hardest thing to understand about such self-inflicted brain amputees is not how they are able to hypnotize themselves that, "Because two equals one, therefore two equals one." Rather, it is how they are able to reason that bathroom activities should be confined to the bathroom.

Lennox asserts (p. 14) that, "the new Atheists want to 'raise the consciousness' of atheists and encourage them to stand up and be counted for their faith." Clearly he recognizes that the ultimate put-down of atheism is to call it a "faith." Atheism is a faith like OFF is a television program. But Lennox reiterates his inability to grasp that reality by citing Dawkins (p. 19) as wanting to encourage atheists "to come out for their faith (for such it is, despite their protests to the contrary)." Continuing to call atheism a faith when it clearly is not, is an example of the Big Lie. And the Big Lie works, or Mitt Romney would not still be a threat to American democracy.

And he rewrites history by alleging (p. 20) that, "for centuries the source of morality, at least in the West, had been the Judaeo-Christian tradition." If he believes that, I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn that I think will interest him. The reality is that religion has been the source of ninety percent of all manmade evil for over three thousand years. No nontheist ever flew a jetliner into the World Trade Center in the belief that an anarch (or whatever) considered mass murder a virtuous act. What is incomprehensible is how any godworshipper can be moral when, instead of recognizing that morality is the conscious avoidance of all behavior that unnecessarily hurts a nonconsenting victim, he has been brainwashed that right and wrong are whatever his Sky Fuhrer or its self-appointed scriptwriter says they are.

Like so many apologists for contrary-to-facts beliefs, whether religion, astrology, the paranormal, or alien abductions, Lennox adopts the position that quoting an opponent thereby rebuts him. He cites evidence presented by Dawkins and others, as if his inability to offer a counter-argument constitutes proof that no counter-argument is necessary. This accords with the principle, "When you have no defense, attack." He states (p. 31) that Stephen Hawking "is guilty of a number of serious misunderstandings and logical fallacies." I was also less impressed by The Grand Design than Hawking's previous books. But as a non-physicist (I am a historian) I did not offer my opinion as the equal of Hawking's in his own field. Lennox seems to believe he can dispute a physicist as an equal, even though Lennox is a theologian, defined by H. L. Mencken as "a blind man in a dark room searching for a black cat that is not there-and finding it."

Lennox quotes Steven Weinberg (p. 59): "Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion;" and Robert Persig (p. 45): "When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion." But he then appropriates the conjurer's technique of misdirection to disguise the fact that he is unable to come up with any kind of rebuttal. Did he adopt such a strategy because he is fully aware that his targeted readers are "faith-heads" (p. 45) afflicted with "a perpetually infantile mentality" (p. 46)? The most charitable answer is, "You bet your sweet arse he did," since the alternative is far less flattering. Or is there a third explanation for his quoting those of Hitler's words that expressed contempt for religion (pp. 88-89), but not the Fuhrer's many assertions that his actions against an opposition religion constituted, "doing the Lord's work"?

Lennox cites the lower birth rate among nontheists than theists in an overpopulated world as evidence that religiosity is a survival factor. He observes (p. 25) that, "One might have thought that, if the New Atheists are right about evolution, they, of all people, would be the most enthusiastic about spreading their genes." That nontheists put survival of the human race ahead of the selfish desire to maximize the number of their descendants, does not strike him as evidence of their superior concept of morality.

In his concluding paragraph (p. 231), Lennox writes, "Atheism has no answer to death, no ultimate hope to give. . . . But the resurrection of Jesus opens the door on a bigger story." Am I the only person who sees that rewording of Pascal's wager as a confession that the writer is a moral coward who, without the mind-deadening opiate of an afterlife belief to overcome his terror of death, would have to be institutionalized and diapered? While I have never met Lennox, I have met many other incurables who are certainly so motivated.

Lennox is not unlearned. While he sets up straw men by distorting their unanswerable arguments into something he can answer, he quotes enough of the strongest rebuttals of the god hypothesis to prove his awareness of their existence. But he is assuredly unteachable. Only a person incapable of recognizing that they are right would even attempt to argue with Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens, and Stenger. And in so doing, he shows that he is beyond the reach of reason.

Let me backtrack a little. While I stand by my comparison of John Lennox with Alister McGrath, for all of the reasons indicated above, Lennox has written a book that a reasonably intelligent layman could take seriously. In contrast, anyone who could read McGrath's blithering idiocy and not recognize it as an insult to his intelligence has a lot in common with a Scientologist. But while Lennox does it more effectively than McGrath, he is equally guilty of projecting the Orwellian doublethink he sees in the mirror onto persons who do have functioning human brains. Like his peers, Lennox uses a combination of circular reasoning, doubletalk, and the defense-lawyer tactic of so severely distorting the evidence that it blurs the distinction between misleading and outright lying.

Apologists for the Jesus fairy tales are an embarrassment to the kindergartens that graduated them. If they cannot grasp that a bible containing fourteen assurances that the earth is flat is fiction, not even a course in Logic 101 is likely to get past the firewalls they have built around their brains to keep out reality. On the up-side, the god delusion has already been reduced to minority status in Europe and Australia, 64 percent in North America, and only slightly higher in Latin America. If this is the best that its defenders can come up with, its fate is assuredly sealed.

Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and
Science
John C. Lennox
Zondervan
Grand Rapids, MI 49530
9780310492177, $16.99

Compare "The Beginning According to Genesis and Science" to, "The Mock Turtle: Its Taxonomy According to the Oxford English Dictionary and Alice in Wonderland." Only someone who does not know that the mock turtle exists only in a Lewis Carroll fairy tale would bother reading a book that treats it as an entity from the real world. And only someone who does not know that Genesis is a collection of fairy tales would bother reading a book by an author who clearly does not know that.

In Lennox's later book, Gunning for God, he many times quoted bible passages in a way that left no doubt that he regarded them as revealed (if metaphorical) truth. But nowhere did he endorse the literal truth of the opening chapters of Genesis. Does that mean that he recognized, that either the universe is billions of years old, as science has ascertained, or barely six thousand years old, as the bible authors believed? In Gunning for God he ignored that question altogether, perhaps in the belief that he could uphold the validity of the god hypothesis without alienating either young-earth creationists or more educated theists.

In Seven Days he shows himself to be part of the majority of Christians who recognize that Genesis is not literal truth. But is he also part of the majority who recognize that zealots who believe in a sadistic god conspiring to get its jollies by barbecuing six billion currently living humans with flamethrowers for the crime of not being brainwashed that Jesus is their savior, have the moral evolution of Adolf Hitler? The place to start looking for an answer to that question would be his index, under the entry, "hell." But guess what? There is no hell in Lennox's index. Is that a further example of avoiding an issue bound to alienate a percentage of his readers, whatever position he adopts, in the hope that all readers will assume that he agrees with them?

Lennox bases his whole case for a metaphorical interpretation of the seven days of the Genesis creation fable on false analogies. He points out (p. 25) that, in the statement, "the car was flying down the road," neither speaker nor hearer imagines that "flying" is anything but a metaphor for "going very fast." He then proceeds to the nonsequitur (p. 16) that, when a psalmist wrote that, "He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved," he did not intend "never be moved" to exclude revolving on its axis or orbiting the sun. He argues (pp. 32-33) that, "although the Bible texts could be understood to support a fixed earth, there is a reasonable alternative interpretation of those texts that makes far more sense in the light of our greater understanding of how the solar system operates." He elaborates (p. 33), "We know now that the earth does not rest on literal foundations or pillars made of stone, concrete or steel. We can therefore see that the words "foundation" and "pillars" are used in a metaphorical sense." An analogous argument would be, "We know now that the sky is not a solid dome to which the sun, moon and stars are attached. We can therefore see that the words "dome" and "waters above the dome" are used in a metaphorical sense." And if that is typical of how his intellectual faculties work, Nurse Ratched has a bed in the Cuckoo's Nest waiting for him.

The only "reasonable alternative" to the bible being revealed truth is that the bible is fiction, compatible with what authors living in a prescientific culture believed but incompatible with anything an omniscient god could have believed and revealed. Lennox makes no attempt at a metaphorical interpretation of the bible's fourteen endorsements of a flat earth, presumably because he hopes that if he ignores them they will go away.

Lennox starts from the assumption that the "seven days" of creation referred to long periods of time. The strongest rebuttal a nontheist could offer to that is that only a shortsighted, clumsy, inept god would have been so ambiguous in what he dictated to his scribes. But he argues that, since the Torah uses the Hebrew word "yom" in some places to mean a 24-hour day and in other places to mean the daytime, that supports his argument that "day" was a metaphor for "eon." He should have quit while he still had some credibility. As for his argument that the reason events attributed to the fifth day occurred earlier than events attributed to the third day was that the Genesis fable was accurate in terms of priority rather than chronology: A defense lawyer who offered such convoluted reasoning to a jury would be disbarred for life.

Lennox recognizes Stephen Jay Gould's "non-overlapping magisteria" as indefensible (p. 28), since religion does make claims that are incompatible with religious dogma and therefore both cannot be true. He reports "another belief: that science deals with reality, and religion with Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and God." He is counting on his brainwashed readers seeing a comparison of God and the Tooth Fairy as absurd, eliminating the necessity of explaining what is absurd about it-the way god-pushers in the USA drew attention to the Soviet Union's classification of religion as superstition, without offering any evidence that the Soviets were wrong.

Lennox reveals himself to be a hardcore creationist who rejects the whole concept of evolution-and offers arguments for that position based on a literal interpretation of passages from a bible he acknowledges to be riddled with metaphors and other imprecisions. He declares that Adam and Eve were literally the first male and first female human (p. 70), as opposed to individuals randomly chosen from preexisting "hominids or, indeed, Neolithic farmers." He makes no attempt to explain why, as Isaac Asimov wrote in Of Matters Great and Small, "There is so much similarity in the biochemical workings of all organisms, not only if we compare men and monkeys, but if we compare men and bacteria, that if it weren't for species-centered conceit, the fact of evolution would be considered self-evident." Perhaps he thinks that, in giving all terrestrial lifeforms similar DNA, God ran out of ideas and had to plagiarize himself? He summarizes his rejection of proven reality in the words (p. 85), "It is important therefore to combat that naturalism [i.e., evolution] by presenting biblical theism as a credible alternative that, far from involving intellectual suicide, makes more sense of the data than does atheistic reductionism." Where was the perpetrator of such mental gymnastics when P. T. Barnum really needed him? I can hardly wait to read how he would defend the literal truth of Alice in Wonderland. No doubt his primary purpose was to convince his unlearned readers that his manipulative word-spinning disproved evolution. But is it plausible that he believed he had really done so? That insane I think he is not.

Science and religion are not incompatible when science says that the universe began with a Big Bang and religion says that God triggered the Big Bang. They are incompatible when science says that humans and chimpanzees evolved from common ancestors, and offers their 98% identical DNA in support of that conclusion, and religion says that all species, past and present, were created independently. They are not incompatible when science says that all living humans are descended from a woman retroactively called Mitochondrial Eve, and religion says that all living humans are descended from a paradise-dweller named Eve. They are incompatible when science says that Mitochondrial Eve lived around 200,000 years ago, and religion, by tracing Eve's descendants down to King David, who can be dated with reasonable accuracy, says that she lived about 6,000 years ago. And they are incompatible when science says that no person who had been measurably dead for more than a few minutes has ever come back to life, and religion says that a dead man did come back to life.

Whole chapters of Lennox's infantile drivel are devoted to nitpicking analyses of biblical passages best described as prescientific dogmatism, unworthy of consideration, let alone distorting into whatever meaning an apologist finds expedient. To a reasonably intelligent layman, his arguments come across as more plausible than Alister McGrath's transparently imbecilic defense of essentially the same conclusions. McGrath is batshit crazy, so much so that he is unable to con himself that lying is justifiable if it promotes a higher truth. Lennox has no such limitation. Nonetheless, anyone with even minimal expertise who examines their arguments will recognize that Lennox is as intellectually and rationally challenged as McGrath, but more guilty of dispensing disinformation so blatant that no one with a functioning human brain could fail to recognize this whole book as a pack of lies from start to finish. The only difference between Seven Days that Divide the World and guano, is that guano is useful.

Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World
John Shelby Spong
Harper-Collins Publishers
10 East 53rd Street
New York NY 10022
9780062011282, $28.99

According to the writer of bishop Spong's dust jacket blurb, the author "demonstrates that it is possible to be both a deeply committed Christian and an informed twenty-first-century citizen." By that reasoning, it should be possible to be both a deeply committed Flat-Earther and an informed geologist/geographer. Anyone who believes either of those claims should be aware that there is a bridge for sale in Brooklyn that is likely to interest him.

As always, I checked out Spong's bibliography before reading anything else. There were some listings of competent scholars who disagreed with him. But glaringly absent were Robert Price, Bart Ehrman, and Richard Elliot Friedman.(1) In contrast, the omission of God, Jesus and the Bible: The Origin and Evolution of Religion,(2) came as no surprise. If Spong had acknowledged reading that book, his failure to mention his bible's fourteen endorsements of a flat earth would have been seen as an acknowledgement that some biblical falsehoods simply cannot be rationalized away. Equally indefensible was the absence of an index.

I also like to see what Amazon customers say when they review or comment on a book whose message is essentially, "Truth is whatever Mother Goose says it is. End of discussion." Not surprisingly, since customers mark opinions that parallel their own as "helpful", and opinions with which they disagree as "unhelpful", Spong was most strongly denounced, not by scholars who know that the Christian bible contains the same proportion of fact and fiction as Alice in Wonderland, but by biblical literalists to whom Spong's conclusion that the universe is the billions of years old that astronomers and other scientists have established, and not the mere six thousand years that biblical genealogies indicate, constitutes capital heresy.

All godworshippers are insane. Anyone who was not insane before he started believing that mass murder was evil when Hitler did it with gas chambers, but is not evil when his imaginary Sky Fuhrer does it with disease, famine, religious wars, natural disasters, transportation accidents, and old age, is assuredly insane once he does acquire such a belief. But not all are incurable, or I and every nontheist of my acquaintance would still be believers. I suggest that Spong is not incurable, even though, twelve years after the god delusion has ceased providing his bread and butter, he still refuses to recognize that, if every one of earth's thirty thousand religions except one is false, the probability that the one true religion is his own is one in thirty thousand. He remains emotionally committed to pie in the sky when he dies. But unless he is a chronic moral coward, the likelihood is that logic will eventually get past the firewall he maintains around his brain to keep out ultimate reality. As Julius Caesar allegedly said, "Cowards die many times, the valiant but once."

There are many points on which scholars disagree. So I will not cite points of disagreement between Spong and myself, since I have no way of knowing if the disagreement stems from Spong's ignorance of facts with which I am familiar, my ignorance of facts with which he is familiar, or incompatible but equally defensible interpretations of ambiguous evidence. Even Spong's rejection of the existence of a "Q" source (p. 336) can be considered a mere difference of opinion, since he offers the alternative explanation for fables found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark, that Luke used both Mark and Matthew as sources. But I must point out that one of Spong's beliefs, that the virgin-birth myths were always part of Matthew and Luke (p. 319), presupposes that both gospel authors placed genealogies showing Jesus' descent from King David, through his father Joseph, alongside a narrative that denied that Jesus' was Joseph's biological son. Does Spong think the gospel authors were really that stupid?

Spong shows no awareness that Allahiym/Elohim is a dual-sex, generic plural that should be translated as "the gods and goddesses," not as the singular, masculine, proper name, "God." He does recognize that "God" is portrayed as the most sadistic, evil, mass-murdering psychopath in all fiction. But he rationalizes that such characterization reflects what the bible authors saw in the mirror, not the god who (he believes) actually exists. His wording (p. 66) is, "God also appears to have been less than noble and even less than moral." But his explanation is, "We recognize again the human origins of this book."

He states (p. 101) that, "If God has the power to intervene and does not do so . Either God is impotent and not able to intervene, a point of view which destroys theism completely, or God is angry at something or someone [raising the suspicion that] God is nothing more than a human projection and thus a human delusion." In other words he recognizes the doublethink of Third Isaiah-that the victims of the god committee's atrocities had it coming-as "the constant attempt . to preserve the illusion of God's justice," while refusing to recognize the same purpose behind his own doublethink, that a god innocent of the crimes detailed in its own bible nonetheless exists and is a nice guy.

Whole chapters of Spong's book consist of nothing more than a retelling of specific biblical books. That is consistent with his recognition that the believers for whom he is writing have never read a bible, since if they had they would constitute less than 10 percent of the American population rather than their actual 64 percent. He knows as well as Isaac Asimov that, "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."(3) But he does draw attention to fables that no sane person could mistake for history. For example, he points out that the tale of Joshua stopping the sun in its revolution around the earth was the basis for the conviction of Galileo for heresy, since Galileo's heliocentric cosmography and the bible's geocentric cosmography could not both be true. And he leaves no doubt that, when science and the bible disagree, it is science that is almost certainly, and sometimes quite certainly, right.

In his section on the bible's protest literature, Spong recognizes (p. 169) that Jonah, Job and Ruth "are not real people who ever lived; they are literary characters created by their respective authors to . carry a specific narrative message." And in his chapter on II Zechariah,(4) Spong writes (p. 153), "One conclusion is obvious. The gospels are neither history nor biography. They are interpretive portraits written by Jewish followers of Jesus, as those followers participated in the worship of the synagogues." In other words, he recognizes that the gospels on which Christianity stands or falls are fairy tales, yet he continues to view Christianity as more rooted in reality than tealeaf reading or Dungeons and Dragons. In the name of Zeus, Aphrodite and Apollo, why? Even to view Jesus as an enlightened philosopher comparable with Lao Tzu, he would have to be unaware of the fable put into Jesus' mouth in Luke 16:9 that can be summarized, "Cheat those who are no longer useful to you, and use the stolen money to bribe those who are in a position to do you good."

Spong presents a compelling argument (p. 239) that Paul of Tarsus, like many of today's intransigent zealot preachers, was a repressed homosexual. His arguments are equally supportive of the hypothesis that Paul was afflicted with rampant satyriasis, but he nonetheless makes a good case that the first Christian homophobe was a self-hater. And unlike some commentators best described as incompetent, he does not raise the question of why Paul made no mention of miracles and other events described in the gospels, since he is aware that, at the time Paul wrote, the gospel fairy tales had not been invented yet. As for his conclusion (p. 64) that, "behind the books of Joshua and Judges there are some echoes of history, but they are faint indeed," only those scholars described as minimalists would have trouble agreeing.

He recognizes (p. 255) that "the twelve" was a mystical concept retroactively associated with Jesus' evangelizing, not a fact of history. And while he acknowledges that Paul saw Jesus as embodying all of the virtues of his god, he does not read into Paul's letters the implication of some apologists that Paul believed Jesus to be a god, an implication that is simply not there. He does, however, read into the Christian Testament (p. 203), "the profound truths that I find beneath the literal words of the text," that are also simply not there. He thinks that the gospel authors were Jews (p. 205), despite John's expertise in formal Greek and Matthew's inability to read Hebrew.(5) He recognizes (p. 53) that the Jews of the Babylonian captivity "did not believe that God could even hear their prayers in this foreign place." But he does not point out that the Commandment that the Jews tolerate "no other gods before my face" was not an endorsement of monotheism, a concept Judaism had not yet adopted, but a denial of the right of non-Jewish gods to be worshipped in Jerusalem, where Yahweh would be subjected to the indignity of having to watch.

Inflexible apologists for the god hypothesis, such as Alister McGrath and John Lennox, have as much capacity for rational human thought as a great white shark with rabies. Expecting them to understand that a bible that cannot be believed when it states that the earth is flat, should not be believed when it states that a god has revealed its existence, would be like expecting a talking mynah bird to understand calculus. Spong, in contrast, recognizes that the bible is a product of the human imagination. He is aware that, for the birth tales in Matthew and Luke both to be true, Jesus would have had to be born ten years before he was conceived,(6) but argues, logically, (p. 210) that, "Luke appears to have inserted Quirinius into his story to support the idea [that Jesus was born in Bethlehem]." Spong agrees with the majority of scholars that Jesus was born in Galilee, not Bethlehem, but thinks (p. 211) that his birthplace was the non-existent village of Nazareth,(7) when it was almost certainly Capernaum.(8)

Spong shows the rationality to grasp that a bible containing blatant absurdities is a work of fiction, and consequently rejects "because the bible says so" as a justification for believing the intrinsically improbable. So what other reason does he have for believing in a god that is an oxymoron?(9) Since he offers no answer to that question, it can only be a matter of time before he recognizes that there is no answer. I can only wish him: Get well soon. But of course if he needs the mind-deadening opiate of an afterlife belief to overcome his terror of death and get him through the day without having to be institutionalized and diapered, that will not happen.

1 In Who Wrote the Bible, Friedman shows that there was a fifth primary contributor to the Torah, "the Redactor," in addition to J, E, D and P, with whom Spong is familiar.

2 William Harwood, World Audience, NY, 2009.

3 www.goodreads.com/quotes

4 Spong identifies chapters 1 to 8 as I Zechariah, and chapters 9 to 14 as II Zechariah. In The Protestant Bible Correctly Translated, I identify chapters 9 to 11 as 2nd Zechariah, and 12 to 14 as 3rd Zechariah.

5 William Harwood, God, Jesus and the Bible, pp. 345, 322.

6 Matthew 2:1 states that Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod, who died in 4 BCE. Luke 2:1-5 shows Jesus still in utero at the time of Quirinius's census, ten years after Herod's death.

7 Rene Salm, The Myth of Nazareth: The Invented Town of Jesus, Cranford NJ, 2008.

8 William Harwood, op cit, p. 258.

9 A god with the omnipotence to abolish such anti-human reality as disease, famine and natural disasters, and the omnibenevolence to wish to do so, in a universe in which such evils observably exist, is an oxymoron.

Swift Viewing: The Popular Life of Subliminal Influence
Charles R. Acland
Duke University Press
905 W. Main St, Suite 18b
Durham, NC 27701
9780822349242, $24.95, www.amazon.com

"It is the realization of an underlying dream involving the necessity of meeting the demands of a speedy era. After all, Walter Benjamin long ago alerted us to our modern universe of milliseconds, calling it the 'optical unconscious' of photography. In a way we are part of a Liebnizian age, obsessed with the infinitesimal petite difference that constitutes the barest minimum of event" (p. 86). If you believe that compilation of the minimum amount of information in the maximum amount of verbiage actually said anything, I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn that I think will interest you. I sometimes suspect that persons who write such contentless doubletalk are trying to make the point, "Look how clever I am." As Robert Heinlein once wrote, "If a person of normal intelligence, and a reasonably full education, cannot understand a piece of prose, then it is gibberish." Swift Viewing discusses the rise and fall of belief in subliminal advertising in perhaps twenty pages of information surrounded by 200 pages of gibberish.

Subliminal advertising refers to the insertion into a television broadcast of an image that appears on screen for a single frame, one-thirtieth of a second, so that viewers have no conscious awareness of seeing it but are nonetheless manipulated into procuring the subliminally advertised product or acting in a Manchurian Candidate-ized manner. The concept originated (pp. 91-92) as bad science, involving sloppy research that allegedly achieved positive results that all attempts at replication failed to reproduce. By the early 1950s investigators had established (p. 20) that there is, "no subliminal perception mechanism known to science that can effectively coerce human action against the conscious deliberate will of the people."

Nonetheless, in a 1966 episode of Columbo (p. 24), a murder victim was shown being lured to a theater's water fountain by a subliminal image of ice-cold Coca Cola that did not register on his conscious awareness. Reprints of Vance Packard's 1951 book, The Hidden Persuaders, continue to reinforce the delusion. And as recently as 2000 Al Gore accused George W. Bush of utilizing subliminal messages in his advertising (p. 14), "to manipulate voters without their awareness." Why there is still a market for such pseudoscience is made clear by Acland's report (p. 16) that 75 percent of persons surveyed in 1994 believed that subliminal advertising was still being used and that the technique works. That is understandable, since subliminal advertising is seen as a kind of hypnotism, and a comparably high percentage believe that the science fiction concept of hypnotism actually exists. Hidden persuaders is a delusion, hypnotism is a delusion, and subliminal advertising is a delusion.

Will Acland's book cure believers in subliminal advertising of their ignorance? Richard Dawkins was unable to cure the 51 percent who refuse to believe in any form of evolution, god-directed or otherwise; James Randi was unable to cure the 71 percent who believe in the paranormal; the so-called "four horsemen" were unable to cure the 64 percent who believe in religion; Thomas Szasz was unable to cure the 63 percent who believe that sympathetic listening is a form of medicine when psychiatrists do it but not when bartenders do the same thing; and Carl Sagan was unable to cure the 80 percent (source: CNN) who think the US government is covering up contact with intelligent extraterrestrials. Add to that, that Acland himself endorses beliefs he fails to recognize as paranormal (e.g., pp. 60-61, that magician Joseph Dunninger's simulations of the nonexistent, such as hypnosis, were not simulations), and my advice to anyone who expects his arguments to cure conspiracy freaks is: Don't hold your breath.

Who's Who in Hell
Warren Allen Smith
Barricade Books
150 Fifth Avenue, Ste 700
New York, NY 10011
1569801584, $125.00, www.amazon.com

My biggest disappointment with "Who's Who in Hell: A Handbook and International Directory for Humanists, Freethinkers, Naturalists, Rationalists, and Non-Theists", is that its author is a humanist who knows as well as I do that Hell does not exist, and not a morally depraved fundamentalist (tautology) who believes in a god that shares his sadistic delight in savoring the spectacle of people like me being barbecued with flamethrowers in an underworld Auschwitz for zillions of years for the crime of possessing a functioning human brain capable of recognizing that a god that would accredit Hell but is nonetheless a nice guy is an oxymoron.

Entries range from a single line about Michael Shermer to fifteen lines for William Harwood, more than a full page for Charles Darwin, and three pages for Thomas Jefferson. Smith states that, "The size of individual entries is definitively not an indication of the person's importance." That would explain why Madalyn Murray O'Hair gets three columns compared to Thomas Huxley's less than two, and I get more space than Michael Shermer. And Smith ventures into the realm of opinion when he quotes a reviewer who denigrated me for identifying Abraham as a person from history (actually I hypothesized that Abraham was a dynasty of sheikhs of the same name), while declining to quote more flattering reviews that compared me to H. L. Mencken and Joseph McCabe.

Nonetheless, I can only feel flattered at being included in a directory that also lists Woody Allen, Steve Allen, Isaac Asimov, P. T. Barnum, Ambrose Bierce, Richard Bozarth, Giordano Bruno, Warren Buffett, Arthur C. Clarke, Joseph Conrad, Bill Cooke, Clarence Darrow, Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Charles Dickens, Marlene Dietrich, Albert Einstein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Tom Flynn, Ben Franklin, Betty Friedan, Yuri Gagarin, Martin Gardner, Bill Gates, Edward Gibbon, Allen Ginsberg, Mikhail Gorbachev, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Hugh Hefner, Robert Heinlein, Katherine Hepburn, Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Thomas Jefferson, Penn Jillette, Bernard Katz, John F. Kennedy, Jack Kevorkian, John Keats, Philip Klass, Paul Kurtz, Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, A. J. Mattill, Joseph McCabe, H. L. Mencken, Honore Miribeau, Henry Morgantaler, George Orwell, Thomas Paine, Ayn Rand, Salmon Rushdie, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sagan, Robert Sawyer, John Scopes, George Bernard Shaw, Mary Shelley, Michael Shermer, Victor Stenger, Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Ibn Warraq, George Washington, H. G. Wells, Frank Zindler, and many of my other heroes. I should mention that Smith includes politicians whose writings indicate that they may well have been Deists, a belief system he (and I) classify as nontheist. The publication date explains the absence of Sam Harris. Less explicable is the absence of Oral Roberts. Surely Smith does not imagine that a humbug who blasphemously accused his god of putting a contract on him unless his sycophants paid a ransom of $8 million, believed that such a god actually exists?

While I have not checked, I seriously doubt that I or any of my co-contributors to American Rationalist made it into Smith's 288 page, 2002 abridgement, Celebrities in Hell. I can live with that.

William Harwood
Reviewer


Heidi's Bookshelf

The Book Blogger's Cookbook
Christy Dorrity
Dorrity Publishing
B0054R6T6S, $4.99 (digital)

Free books often live up to expectations: either all marketing material with very little substance or barely even worth the time to download the freebie. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by this cookbook.

I admit, the purpose of the book is attracting more readers to a variety of books. The structure is providing a recipe that reflects or relates to a specific book or story. An interesting idea. Admittedly, in many cases I skipped the first part describing each story. The recipes however definitely have redeeming value.

I frequently find even in cookbooks published the traditional way that a small percentage of the recipes are interesting and often they simply don't turn out as advertised. A surprisingly number of recipes from this collection caught my attention. Even better each one I tried out turned out great.

The Cherry-Chocolate Oatmeal cookies received high praise and an interesting bit of feedback: the flavors with the chocolate and dried cherries balanced well. Neither took over the cookie; sometimes tricky with these strong flavors. (I know, there is no such thing as too much chocolate, yet tasting other components is refreshing.)

The favorite recipe was the Fablehaven Mint Brownies. The recipe urned out great the very first time and had an appropriate amount of mint flavor. Later, I even made just half a batch that still worked well despite the original calling for 3 eggs. The brownies are decadent so definitely cut them in small pieces.

I definitely recommend downloading this unusual collection. You'll get access to recipes worthy of repeat usage and might even find some interesting new reads if you're lucky.

Holiday Vegan Recipes
Gina 'The Veggie Goddess' Matthews
VeggieGoddess.Blogspot.com
B0095PBI1Q, $3.99 (digital)

Some people see the term vegan on a cookbook, recipe, or dish and give all their negative assumptions free reign. Common problems with vegan cooking include complicated recipes, multi-day preparations, and conflict between good texture or good taste. For "Holiday Vegan Recipes: Holiday Menu Planning for Halloween through New Years", all the recipes I tried were simply tasty. Although vegan by ingredient even the omnivores enjoyed eating the results.

From cupcakes to pate and hummus, many tasty dishes came out of this cookbook. However, if you're looking for that stellar recipe you will use over and over again. With a food-processor, the recipe is extra-simple.

It's healthy with nuts, carrots and raisins - but no one will notice or care. All the testers who make the "Attack of the Martians Asteriod Balls" disappear in record time said they had eaten way too many. It was a pleasure to let them know that the rich, satisfying experience was a low-guilt indulgence.

Whether you're looking for vegan recipes to replace holiday favorites, interested in some new ideas, or simply looking for healthier recipes, "Holiday Vegan Recipes" is a great source. I sincerely hope you will try this book and the recipes that come with the download.

Heidi Sue Roth
Reviewer


Janet's Bookshelf

The Spy Lover
Kiana Davenport
Thomas & Mercer
P.O. Box 400818
Las Vegas, NV 89140
9781612183411, $14.95 pbk
$4.99 Kindle www.amazon.com

Grand, powerful, an epic; all the usual terms used to describe historical novels don't express the emotions I felt when reading Kiana Davenport's novel, The Spy Lover. Set against a landscape of the American Civil War, the writing has a clarity of style which makes the extreme suffering of both the Union and Confederate soldiers immediate and shocking. This seemingly non-fiction recounting of daily life while marching to, waiting for, engaging in and afterwards recovering from a battle is profoundly tragic in the loss of life and chaos surrounding the movement of troops, medical staff and civilians in a war where thousands of young men and the families they left behind died in cruel heart rending conditions. At times I felt as bereft and grief stricken as the characters in the story.

A counterpoint to the battle scenes of starvation and death is the exquisite stillness and beauty of the relationship which grows between Era Tom, a young nurse of mixed race (Chinese and American Indian) and Warren Petticomb, a Southern Cavalry Officer. Kiana Davenport's characterizations of these two young people falling in love while caught up in events they have no control over is written with a lovely enchanting intensity.

The story has three narrators: Johnny Tom (Era's father), Era and Warren. Johnny, Chinese born, arrives in America on a slave ship, escaping, he marries a Creek Indian woman. They settle in a small Chinese community in the American South and have a child, Era. Life is hard but they are happy and most importantly: free. The civil war begins and their village is raided by Confederate soldiers. Johnny, along with all the other men is forced to join the army. Aware that the South's aim in fighting the war is the continuation of slavery, Johnny defects to the North's Union army (as do other Chinese men) in the hope that if he survives the war he will be granted American citizenship. In retribution for Chinese defections the Confederate army burn Chinese settlements, raping and killing the women. Era's mother is hung by soldiers and, aged eighteen, she escapes the murderous rampages by joining the Confederate Army as a nurse.

Desperate to find her father, Era is enlisted by the Union Army to spy on the Confederates while acting as a nurse for the ever growing number of wounded. Warren, recovering from the amputation of his arm, falls under the spell of her graceful exotic beauty. Troubled by guilt at the duplicity of her actions in spying for the North, Era, tries to resist but can't stop the deep attraction she feels for Warren.

The narrative switches from Era and Warren's love to Johnny Tom's experience of Union Army life. A truly heroic man, he is determined to live to be reunited with his family. Initially treated with racist contempt, he wins the loyalty and respect of his fellow soldiers who come to love him and his efforts to ensure they survive. In any war luck has to be on your side and for a while Johnny Tom, Era and Warren share a miraculous amount of it. Ever fickle, luck can't be relied upon and dramatic events follow that make the future look grim. Fascination in the detail, the story moves on at a great pace as the Civil War rages, finally petering out in a ghastly litany of death and suffering, survivors left struggling to understand what it was about and if anything really changed for the better.

The story doesn't end when the Civil War stops; in the aftermath of the war Chinese immigrants in Nevada and San Francisco are massacred - their crime: being hard working and law abiding. These racist actions were especially appalling as Chinese men, in both armies, fought loyally and bravely for their adopted country.

Reading The Spy Lover engendered feelings of horror and hope. Horror, at the waste of almost an entire generation of young men for little result and the shameful murders of Chinese immigrants. Hope, that stories like The Spy Lover will help us all, no matter what color, creed or race to live together in enduring peace. I commend this book to your attention; it's a wonderful read.

Face Of The Enemy, A New York In Wartime Mystery
Joanne Dobson & Beverle Graves Myers
Poisoned Pen Press
6962 E. First Avenue, Suite 103
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
www.poisonedpenpress.com
9781464200311, $24.95 hc
9781464200328, $14.95 pbk
$6.99 Kindle www.amazon.com

Right is the way I would describe Joanne Dobson & Beverle Grave Myers' new book, Face Of The Enemy, A New York In Wartime Mystery. Everything is so right - the setting of New York City in late 1941 after war is announced with Japan is finely detailed, the reaction of residents (gals running around stocking up on nylons), the vilification and internment of enemy aliens (most of longstanding U.S. residency) and the rapid rise of public hysteria against anything and anyone not American.

Dobson and Grave Myers, both writers with individual publishing credits, have combined to write an exciting, intriguing story that twists around New York streets and avenues. Maybe the authors know who wrote what, but I didn't; their joint venture has been seamlessly constructed with nostalgic descriptive passages and dialogue that seems (here's that word again) so right for the period.

What's it all about? Masako Fumi, the Japanese born wife of Professor Robert Oakley, holds an exhibition of her avant-garde paintings in the Sherman Gallery in New York. Hugely talented, Masako looks set for a sellout until the attack on Pearl Harbour and anti-Japanese sentiment cause her show to be cancelled. Professor Oakley, ill with pneumonia, can do nothing to stop the FBI's internment of Masako on Ellis Island - her crime; Japanese citizenship and a father who is a prominent member of Tojo's cabinet. Masako isn't a lonely only; all prominent New York Japanese (Italians and Germans also) residents have been literally ripped from their homes and locked up in Ellis Island dormitories with little or no recourse to legal representation.

Louise Hunter, Professor Oakley's nurse, outraged by Masako's arrest decides to do whatever it takes to set her free. Louise lives with other young women in a boardinghouse run by Helda, a German expat. The portraits of Louise and her housemates have been written with humour and understanding of the problems faced by young women in the nineteen forties; dead-end, lowly paid jobs and all pervasive male harassment if they try to step outside accepted female roles; shop assistant, nurse, wife, mother etc .

Masako's art dealer is murdered and things don't look good - the FBI are determined to pin the murder on Masako. Louise, sure Masako is innocent, hires Abe, a gutsy lawyer experienced in fighting human rights violations, and with the help of her room-mate, a reporter with her toe in the door of The New York Times office, the investigation to find the real murderer starts percolating. Homicide Lieutenant Michael Mc Kenna, initially reluctant to help, joins the team. Convinced the FBI have made a scapegoat of Masako and against the orders of his boss, he takes up the case and despite some cleverly plotted red herrings by the authors, Louise and Mc Kenna save the day and Masako. And, oh yeah, forgot to say: there's a nicely handled dash of romance between Louise and Abe (cute guy).

Mentally smiling all the while I was reading Face Of The Enemy, I loved the time-frame, characters and story - really sorry to part from Louise and Mc Kenna when the end credits rolled. Hope the writers have another New York In Wartime Mystery in the pipeline

Detroit Breakdown
D.E. Johnson
Minotaur Books
St. Martin's Press
175 5th Avenue NY, NY 10010
9781250006622, $25.99, www.amazon.com

Detroit, 1912; horse drawn carriages are being replaced by electric or petrol driven vehicles and women's suffrage can't come fast enough. A golden period before the ghastliness of the Great War put an end to the hopes and dreams of a generation of young men, it's the year chosen by D.E. Johnson as a backdrop to his latest mystery, Detroit Breakdown.

A history buff, D.E. Johnson's family background in the automotive industry is put to good use in this rattling good yarn about mayhem and murder in a real life Detroit asylum. Eloise Insane Asylum was founded in 1839 and operated continuously until 1984. The name, Eloise Hospital or Sanatorium, not adopted until 1911, it had two main buildings, one was used to treat the mentally ill and the other for the treatment and housing of patients suffering from tuberculosis. Not, you would think, an ideal combination but one which no doubt suited the finances of the County, as after entering either facility, patients (mostly poor or abandoned) were not expected to last long; the old saying: Kill two birds with one stone seems appropriate.

The story begins as Elizabeth Hume, a good gal to know if you're in a tight corner, and Will Anderson, her likeable but somewhat rash ex-fiance, field a call from Eloise Asylum - a patient has died and Elizabeth's cousin, Robert will more than likely be charged with murder. Robert's incarceration at Eloise, a family secret, he has not had a visit from his family for ten years. Will and Elizabeth jump in her Baker Electric car and motor post haste to the asylum. Distraught at Robert's wafer thin, terrified appearance, Elizabeth, unwilling to believe he is capable of murder, determines to find out who the murderer is and in so doing, set Robert free from what can only be described as a hell-hole.

Will, anxious to help, is sure Elizabeth is not telling him the whole truth about her relationship with Robert. She's not - Robert is her older brother and Elizabeth is afraid that she may also be touched by the Hume family madness. Will suggests they request help from Detective Riordan, an officer of the law, who has helped them on previous occasions. The three meet and brainstorm ways to extricate Robert from the threat of a murder charge. Will, eager to do anything that will reinstate his engagement with Elizabeth, comes up with the idea of having himself committed to the asylum to investigate and find the real killer. This seemed like a pretty dopey idea to me as the Eloise medical staff and on-site police force were noticeably weird, but hey, the things a guy will do for love.

Elizabeth decides to volunteer at Eloise to snoop around and also help Will if trouble strikes. Meanwhile, admitted as John Doe, an amnesia sufferer, Will finds trouble wherever he goes - rancid food, crackpot medical treatments and sadistic police are just a few of the difficulties he faces. He's made progress though; an inmate tells him there have been other deaths and rumour has it they are down to the Phantom, a dude who roams the asylum at night offing inmates with his weapon of choice; a Punjab lasso. Scary stuff, indeed.

Elizabeth and Riordan follow a lead to the town of Kalamazoo and Elizabeth cracks the case - she knows who the Phantom is and Will is at risk... he has to be warned. But can Elizabeth get back to Detroit in time to save him?

The end is a cracker - Will races through tunnels under Eloise, almost drowning as the tunnels fill with water, only to come face to face with the Phantom. Is there a happy ending? Does the Phantom get what's coming to him? You will have to read Detroit Breakdown to find out. The whole family, teens to grandma, will enjoy this well written, exciting and hugely entertaining mystery.

Janet Walker, Reviewer
www.janetwalker.biz


Josh's Bookshelf

Wolf's Trap
W.D. Gagliani
Leisure Books
c/o Dorchester Publishing Company
200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
www.dorchesterpub.com
9780843957020, $6.99, www.amazon.com

Wolf's Trap is not your normal fare for a werewolf tale. It's written with an eye for the beast and it's true nightmares: that of becoming one we must fight ourselves. Following Detective Lupo, a man who is on the trail of a killer, a killer who is on the trail of Detective Lupo, he learns that the werewolf is more common than he originally thought... The detective being a werewolf and savage killer himself. With his insider approach he warrants a distinctive wear and loops his integrity to become a low-slung lead who in fact, created the killer by taking his sister's life years back while in the form of the beast.

W.D. Gagliani has penned one of the most intriguing and unique lycanthrope novels of recent times. Here there are no gimmicks, no teenage love stories or any shots at pretending to be something which is arguably hurtful to the horror craft. Here there are blunt, visceral anti-hero elements that make this ferocious and twisting story its own in that of true supernatural horror.

Spinner
Dustin LaValley
Black Bed Sheet Books
7865 Valley Quail Ct., Antelope, CA 95843
www.downwarden.com/blackbedsheet
9780985882921, $10.95, www.amazon.com

Spree killer Henry Spinner, also known as the AK (Adirondack Killer), is on the run after a deadly setup and escape that took the lives of two corrections officers on transportation duty. Aided by his beautiful yet psychopathic girlfriend Lucy, the duo attempt to outrun the rural local law headed by Detective Bishop. The very man who put the AK in a prison cell. After an attack on a teenage camping trip, three teens are left dead and one taken as hostage who holds a certain key of value. As the authorities close in, Henry and Lucy stumble upon an elderly couple living in the remote Adirondack mountains and attempt a home invasion to prepare for a standoff. What the killers don't know is that this is no ordinary elderly man and woman and they, along with the authorities are in for a surprise so shocking that Henry himself will be forgotten.

Spinner is a white-knuckled, fast-paced page-turner of thrilling horror. Author Dustin LaValley pulls no punches. The action is extreme, the characters in depth, the exploits perverse and the horror hardcore. This debut novella is one to be read by those who enjoy true-life terror speckled with the unknown.

Josh O'Conner
Reviewer


Karyn's Bookshelf

The Odyssey
Gillian Cross, author
Neil Packer, illustrator
Candlewick Press
99 Dover St., Somerville, MA 02144
9780763647919, $19.99, www.amazon.com

Translations abound of Homer's Odyssey. But new versions of the ancient, epic Greek poem are typically language translations. Now, a celebrated author and illustrator team brings it to kids in an illustrated storybook edition that simplifies understanding by using prose rather than verse. While listed for ages 8 and up, Cross and Packer's take on the Odyssey will also be appreciated by teens and adults who want to read the story without having to wade through the original, intricate poetry. Appreciating the beauty of the Homer's poetry is, of course, ultimately key to appreciating the tale. However, this retelling is a great launching pad for those not quite ready to tackle the original. This is a rich, worthy, accessible read. Oversized pages, an oversized font, wide line spacing and succinct, simple sentences will aid readers' comfort. An abundance of illustrations - nearly every two-page spread is boldly illustrated --- will further ease the nerves of reluctant readers. The illustrations are the product of many years of work by Packer, an exceptionally talented artist. The text is just as good. Cross, a Carnegie Medal winner for 1990's "Wolf" succeeds in boiling down the lengthy original verse to just 178 pages. Cross is an immensely skilled writer. She mixes in some modern language while preserving an ancient feel, and deftly captures the roller coaster dynamics of Odysseus' decade-long, oversea journey home from the Trojan War. Places and personalities, divine and human, that Odysseus encounters while drifting between islands are vividly woven into an enthralling narrative. This is not just an essential, rote retelling. A perfect primer that will prep young readers for the real thing.

The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure
Martin W. Sandler
Candlewick Press
99 Dover St., Somerville, MA 02144
9780763650803, $22.99, www.amazon.com

In a modern age of transportation and communications, this late 19th Century rescue feels so archaic as to now be unthinkable. But 114 years ago, before the advent of airplanes and radio, reaching hundreds of ice-bound whalers in northern Alaska, and communicating between rescuers, required an astonishing amount of effort. In November of 1897, President William McKinley ordered a rescue team to trek 1,500 miles overland from Seattle to Point Barrow Station, Alaska, above the Arctic Circle. The rescuers all participated voluntarily. Their job was to save 300 sailors whose eight whaling ships had become stuck in the ice during an unexpected early onset of winter. The whalers' provisions were anticipated to run out in April 1898, so time was of the essence. Ultimately, the process took nearly a year. That a small band of rescuers succeeded against the odds, travelling in the dead of winter on dog sleds and reindeer sleds, and relying on the help of indigenous people, is a great reminder of what once defined a hero. The details are remarkable. Over mountains and icy wasteland, with temperatures dropping to 60 degrees below zero, rescuers risked their lives to push on through the sunless Alaskan winter. They slept in thin tents and ice caves, became separated in blizzards, left notes to each other at remote mission stations, sometimes purposely split up to accomplish predefined tasks and somehow managed to ultimately reach Point Barrow. The whalers were returned to Seattle in September 1898. Writing for a middle grade audience, Sandler skillfully reconstructs the events, blending well-edited excerpts of correspondence and participants' journal entries with original, explanatory prose. Throughout, the reading level remains accessible. Scores of photographs, that a member of the rescue team had the foresight to take in an era when photography was still emerging, enhances the account. Sandler gives well-earned due to native Alaskans who involvement was critical to the rescue's success. In addition to serving as guides and providing appropriate clothing, aborigines provided sleds and dogs. And, dramatically, several agreed to help herd their large packs of reindeer to Point Barrow. In the end, those reindeer fed the stranded whalers while the rescue was completed. A memorably crafted testament to self sacrifice and true heroism.

October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard
Leslea Newman
Candlewick Press
99 Dover St., Somerville, MA 02144
978076365807, $15.99, www.amazon.com

Fourteen years later, books continue to trickle out about the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. The day Shepard died, six days after he was beaten and lashed to a fence, Newman arrived at the University of Wyoming to give the keynote address for Gay Awareness Week. Being thrust into the events in Laramie, Wyoming deeply affected the award-winning poet and critically acclaimed author of "Heather has Two Mommies." Now, Newman offers her personal account in a collection of 68 poems. The poems trace what happened beginning with the night Shepard was lured out of a bar, driven to a rural area, beaten and left for dead. They continue with Shepard's death, the trial of his assailants and his ultimate martyrdom. Newman pointedly notes that, while she draws as much as possible on recorded facts, some poems are purely her conception of what might have gone on. Shepard's assailants conflict in their versions of what happened and there are no other living witnesses. "The poems are not an objective recording of Matthew Shepard's murder and its aftermath; rather they are my own personal interpretation of them," Newman writes. In a memorable, heartfelt way, Newman gives voice to the fence, personifying it as having witnessed Shepard's torture and cradling him until a bicyclist came upon the scene 18 hours later. Similarly, Newman gives voice to a doe that police found lying close to the unconscious Shepard and even to his beating heart which apologizes "for keeping you alive so long. I knew it would kill me to let you go." Some poems feel more roughly constructed than others, but that doesn't diminish their poignancy. And some, including "A Chorus of Parents," stand out for their beauty and for conveying a broader societal message. "I called my oldest my youngest my middle my only my - say it - gay son...I called my son who hasn't heard my voice in a week a month a year two years five years a decade forever...I called my son to say I'm sorry forgive me I've changed I was wrong I love you, I need you, I miss you, come home... he wasn't there...I pray he calls me back." Newman said she hopes the book will renew awareness among young people who are too young to remember Shepard's death. Still wrenchingly relevant; a worthy tribute.

Toppling
Sally Murphy, author
Rhian Nest James, illustrator
Candlewick Press
99 Dover St., Somerville, MA 02144
9780763659219, $15.99, www.amazon.com

Two years after its critically acclaimed release in the author's native Australia, this deceptively simple story about childhood cancer is available in the U.S. Its accessibility, a bit below the typical reading level of the fifth-graders it chronicles, ensures that kids will get through it. The story follows members of a fifth-grade class over a period of months, from the time their classmate is diagnosed with cancer, through the start of his treatment and long absence and, ultimately, to his brief school visit with his mom. There's no neat wrap up; whether the sick boy, named Dom, will survive remains unclear at the last page turn. But the focus really isn't on Dom; it's on his young friends. The experience makes a deep impression on them. It alters how they approach life, in a good way that comes from enduring great adversity. "I don't know if Dom will get well, but I do know that seeing his smile in our classroom has given me hope," says John, Dom's best friend and the story's narrator. Murphy does an excellent job of symbolically linking John's hobby of constructing intricate domino sequences and watching them topple with his personal toppling as he grapples with Dom's illness. In addition to the effect Dom's illness has on classroom dynamics, we see John's anger and sadness surface at home. At home, we see the efforts of his parents and older sister to console and carry him through. The past experience of a bullying classmate, who it is revealed near the book's end watched his father die of cancer, lends great, additional poignancy. The message, to not judge others without knowing their past, screams out here. The banding together of Dom's classmates, who shave their heads before his visit to mimic his baldness, is gently inspiring. And James' illustrations augment the tale's emotional trajectory. Some illustrations, such as one showing an attractive classmate whom John notes is "the next best thing about school after my buddies," is a reminder of where fifth-graders are biologically. That inherent tween upheaval adds a palpable layer of emotion and insecurity to the story which, when compounded by the characters' expanding awareness of serious diseases like cancer, results in deep complexity. Tenderly and conscientiously crafted; just right.

Bananas in my Ears
Michael Rosen, author
Quentin Blake, illustrator
Candlewick Press
99 Dover St., Somerville, MA 02144
9780763662486, $15.99, www.amazon.com

Twenty-five years after its release in the United Kingdom, this uproarious "collection of nonsense stories, poems, riddles, and rhymes," comes to the U.S. Masterfully penned and razor sharp in its wit, it is in league with Shel Silverstein classics such as "Where the Sidewalk Ends." Kids will warm to its four, real-life-inspired sections -- breakfast, the seaside, the doctor's office and bedtime. "The cat's on the table eating someone's bacon," begins Breakfast Time a too-true ode to morning chaos. "Someone's wiped butter on their pants. Someone's poured tea in the sugar bowl. The baby is eating eggshells. What time is it? Breakfast time." Some of the 26 pieces are related works, interspersed throughout the book. There is an ongoing exchange, for instance, between a young boy named Nat and Anna, his exasperated, yet loving, older sister. Nat and Anna resurface four times. Young readers with siblings will see themselves in their squabbles. "I'm not playing this anymore Nat," Anna says, as he exhorts her to pretend to be sick. "I am. I'm Doctor Nat. I'm Doctor Nat," Nat says. "You're not. You're Doctor Sick because you're sick all the time," Anna retorts. Blake's often over-the-top ink and water color illustrations bolster the text's hilarity. Side-splitting fun.

Karyn L. Saemann, Reviewer
www.inkspotsinc.com


Katherine's Bookshelf

Life on Hold
Beverly Stowe McClure
4RV Publishing LLC
PO Box 6482, Edmond OK 73083
9780983801825, $17.99, www.amazon.com

Beverly Stowe McClure writes excellent stories for the youth of today. She has done it again with Life on Hold. Her comprehension of a teenager's feelings, as they mature and become more aware of life around them, is very astute and empathetic.

Myra Gibson has to put her life on hold when she happens to come across a very disturbing piece of paper while cleaning out the family guesthouse. It is such a shock to her that she cannot even think about it, much less ask her parents about it. As an introverted teen, she has no one she can confide in.

"On June eleventh, ten days after my sixteenth birthday life as I knew it came to an end."

The startling discovery will change Myra's life, both with her family and her friends. She has to work it out by herself at first, but eventually starts to open up with her mother, then her father. Later she brings her friends into her secret and finds that she has a lot of support from all sides. Teens will love following Myra and her friends and family to the conclusion of her dilemma.

Beverly Stowe McClure lives in Texas with her husband, Jack. She is the mother to three sons, grandmother to four granddaughters and two grandsons and great grandmother to one great grandson. Her official bio says she married very young.

Beverly is a member of both the North Texas and the national Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Some of her other books for teens include Caves, Cannons, and Crinolines, Listen to the Ghost, Secrets I Have Kept, Rebel in Blue Jeans and Just Breeze.

The Nations
Ken Farmer and Buck Steinke
Timber Creek Press
312 N commerce Street
Gainesville, Texas 76240
9780984882052, $14.95 pb $2.99 Kindle

The Nations by the Ken Farmer and Buck Steinke writing team of the Black Eagle Force series has headed into the old west with a very exhilarating story about Marshal Bass Reeves, the first black U.S. Deputy Marshal. In 1885, the gang known as the Larson Gang terrified Arkansas, Missouri and The Nations (Oklahoma Territory) until they were challenged by Judge Isaac C. Parker by the arrest and sentencing of the youngest member, Ben. The story takes us (yes, we feel as if we are riding right along with the Deputy Marshals) on their trip fraught with danger and death to deliver Ben Larson to his hanging. It is within this story that we are entranced with the rich history and a small part of the record of the U.S. Deputy Marshals, principally Bass Reeves. They relate both his sense of justice and tenderness toward family and friends. We are caught up in the time and place as if we are there.

""I cain't do it, Jack...Jest cain't," Bass said as tears filled his eyes. "Been a slave...Won't make an innocent child one.""

I know you will become a fan of the Farmer-Stienke team if you are not already one. This is a little detour from their former works, but it is still packed with fascinating excitement - just in a little different era. Another hit for the team!

Buck Stienke is a retired captain and fighter pilot for the United States Air Force and a graduate from the Air Force Academy. He was a pilot for Delta Airlines for over 25 years and also executive producer of the award winning film Rockabilly Baby.

Ken Farmer served in the Marine Corps and graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University. Ken has been a professional actor, writer and director with memorable roles in Silverado, Friday Night Lights and Uncommon Valor. He continues to write and direct award-winning films, including Rockabilly Baby.

Katherine Boyer
Reviewer


Logan's Bookshelf

A Fly-By-Wire Architecture for Multi-Threaded Windows Apps
Will Warner
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781475031744, $38.00, www.flybywirewinapps.com

Complexity can be good, but it can also be a tangled mess than detracts from an app. "A Fly-By-Wire Architecture for Multi-Threaded Windows Apps: How to Write Complex but Reliable Windows Applications Quickly" is a coding advisory guide from Will Warner who presents solid advice for making a windows application work with efficiency, with tips on using the C# language effectively, as well as developer's apps and tips in pulling everything together. "A Fly-By-Wire Architecture for Multi-Threade Windows Apps" is a must for any professional program who often has to work on the fly, highly recommended.

The Final War
Fenando Morote-Solari, Elsa-Sofia Morote, & Patricia Bowens McCarthy
Privately Published
0985371412, $19.00, www.thefinalwar.net

When a great war occurs, those who experience it never want to see it again. "The Final War: Avoiding it Through a New Harmonic Society" explores the rising conflicts of the world and the grudges that might lead to another global conflict. The writers, drawing from scholars and military men, offer their views on how to encourage a world that avoids this nasty conflict for a better future for the world. "The Final War" is a strong addition to international issues collections focused on prolonging peace.

To the Ramparts
Marvin Rubinstein
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781477610787, $14.95, www.amazon.com

Change is often scary, and when it cracks the bulwark of faith, it is terrifying. "To The Ramparts: Religion vs. Science - The Battle" analyzes the mountains science has had to climb against religious faith over the centuries, Marvin Rubinstein criticizes faith in impeding technological progress, but holds that faith is a powerful thing, and something that can work with scientific progress rather than impede it. "To the Ramparts" is a fascinating and much recommended read for those who want to better understand the conflict between faith and science.

From Hitler's Oppression to American Liberty
Herbert J. Rissel
Author House
1663 Liberty Dr. Suite #300
Bloomington, IN 47403
9781477215913, $14.95, www.authorhouse.com

How does man wield enough power to orchestrate genocide? "From Hitler's Oppression to American Liberty: My Journey Through Personal, Political, Economical, and Historical Adventures" is a memoir of history from Herbert J. Rissel as he shares his own experiences with the rise of the genocidal dictator Adolph Hitler, as he provides his own insights in how he came to power and shares his life's journey across oceans and countries as a man who has seen much of the chaotic twentieth century. "From Hitler's Oppression to American Liberty" is a life's memoir worth considering for those who want to see more of the twentieth century, much recommended.

Ain't No Bum
Dennis C. McCreight
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781466478008, $15.95, www.amazon.com

The pressures of a father can resonate with you for a lifetime. "Ain't No Bum" is a novel from Dennis McCreight who tells of young Milt McCoy and the pressures laid on him for his young life by his father, and his drive to prove him wrong in a world that may be out to prove him right. "Ain't No Bum" is a strong addition to any general fiction collection, recommended.

Shaking Scripture
Rev. Mark Manning
Tri-Pillar Publishing
9780981892351, $14.95, www.tripillarpublishing.com

Understanding the will of God goes far in our lives. "Shaking Scripture: Grasping More of God's Word" is a pondering on faith and scripture as Reverend Mark Manning suggests how to get more for your life out of God's word, and flourishing it to a higher and more appreciated level of life. Each devotion provides something to think about, and challenges readers to ponder their place in God's life. "Shaking Scripture" is well worth considering for Christian studies collections, recommended.

The World As Story
Anthony C. Patton
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781470060305, $12.95, www.amazon.com

Our lives are forged by the stories we experience and the stories around us. "The World As Story" discusses the story of life, and how to better understand the ideas of story and life, and how to channel this understanding to tell better stories, be it through life or as a writer. With plenty of humor and plenty to consider, "The World As Story" is a strongly recommended addition to writing collections with a nod to self-help, not to be missed.

Carl Logan
Reviewer


Margaret's Bookshelf

Live Younger in 8 Simple Steps
Dr. Eudene Harry
Oasis Wellness & Rejuvenation Center
9780615660981, $17.45, www.livinghealthylookingyounger.com

You're only as young as you feel, and if you feel younger, you'll be younger. "Live Younger in 8 Simple Steps" is a guide to greater health and youth through better diet and exercises that focus on increasing energy and stamina in all aspects of life and living better. With practical advice alongside holistic driven advice, "Live Younger in 8 Simple Steps" is worth considering for those who are trying to find more ways to bring their life to a greater health and vibrancy.

Letting Go
Joann Brumit
La Mer Publishing
9780615620268, $12.99, www.lindseytownsend.com

Grief can ruin our lives. "Letting Go: Surviving & Thriving Through Life's Greatest Trials" is an inspirational read from Joann Brumit as she shares her own troubles with loss and how she pushed herself to overcome and find success through it all once again. Encouraging keeping the spirit strong and with plenty of sage wisdom for life, "Letting Go" is a powerful read and worth considering for anyone who is battling or is about to battle the pains of loss.

Polarized
Patricia Frisch
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781467966290, $14.99, www.PatriciaFrischPhD.com

Bipolar disorder is not understood by much of society. "Polarized" is a memoir from Bipolar disorder sufferer Patricia Frisch as she shares her struggles with the disorder, and what it has faced her with as a child, as an adult, and how she gained the power to overcome the disorder and take control of her life after it all. With plenty to inspire readers facing their own illnesses, "Polarized" is very much recommended reading for psychology and memoir collections.

There is No Redo
Larry P. Benovitz
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781463773229, $18.95, www.amaozn.com

Second chances are great, but there's no second chance at life. "There is No Redo: Strategies for a Lifetime" is an inspirational read from Larry P. Benovitz who advises readers on how to make the most of their one life and pick their own path through life where they find their own empowerment and enlightenment through it all. With plenty to consider to make the most of the time, "There is No Redo" is a strong addition to inspirational collections, highly recommended.

My Mountain Has a Name
Patsy Wilder Brown
Author House
1663 Liberty Dr. Suite #300
Bloomington, IN 47403
9781477213551, $14.95, www.authorhouse.com

Cancer is mortality looking us right in the eye with all of its cruelty. "My Mountain Has a Name" is a memoir from Patsy Wilder Brown as she shares her own stand against cancer and the battle that she waged to return to her quiet life that she quite enjoyed. A battle where she faced losses, she brings a face of humor and understanding, making "My Mountain Has a Name" a much recommended cancer memoir.

The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge
Christine Nolfi
Privately Published
9781468199277 $13.95 www.ChristineNolfi.com

The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge is a contemporary novel about the generational repercussions of a terrible rape, and dark hidden secrets. Ourania D'Andre is trying to balance her career with her responsibilities as a foster mother for two children, Walt and Emma Korchek. A construction worker with cold, ruthless eyes troubles her; on behalf of the children in her care, she will have to confront a monster in human form. Poignant and powerful, The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge is as much a saga of learning how to survive, heal, and forgive as it is a chilling crime story, unforgettable to the very end.

The Case
Joseph N. Cooper
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781470050597, $18.00, www.amazon.com

Small business incentives exist, but they are often snatched up by businesses that are anything but small. "The Case: SBA Failure to Protect 8A Contractor Combating Fraud" explores the fraud surrounding federal government contracts and the abuses that larger corporations are using that are harming small, women and minority owned businesses. Joseph Cooper takes on his own experiences with the laws and their problems and his fight against the fraudulent practices. "The Case" is worth considering for those who want a better understanding of small business law.

The World As I Saw, As I Heard
Ravi Mehrotra
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
9781477628744, $5.00, www.amazon.com

Trees have provided much to humanity over the years. "The World as I Saw, As I Heard" is an environmental story written from perspective of a tree, as Ravi Mehrotra makes a call for conservation, as he writes of the needlessness waste that often occurs surrounding forests and their trees. "The World as I Saw, as I Heard" is a strong addition to general fiction collections with an environmentalist message.

Margaret Lane
Reviewer


Marjorie's Bookshelf

The Eighty-Dollar Champion
Elizabeth Letts
Ballantine Books
c/o The Random House Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, 17th floor, New York, NY 10019
www.randomhouse.com
9780345521088, $26.00, www.amazon.com

"The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman: The Horse that Inspired a Nation" is a true rags-to-riches story about a plow horse saved from the slaughterhouse in 1956 by a Dutch immigrant to the U.S., Harry de Leyer. Harry's kids named the horse Snowman because he had snow all over him when he stepped off the slaughter house truck on their small farm on Long Island, New York. Snowman went on to become in 1958 Horse of the Year, the Professional Horseman's Association Champion and the Champion of the Madison Square Garden's Diamond Jubilee. Letts tells the entire story of Snowman from when de Leyer first found the horse at the New Holland, Pennsylvania horse auction and bought him for $80 from the slaughterhouse truck driver to the end of his eventful life in 1974 at the de Leyer farm, Hollandia, on Long Island. Letts not only chronicles Snowman's rise to fame and how de Leyer discovered the horse's jumping abilities and trained him. The author also gives us insights into de Leyer and his family who left Holland after World War Two to seek better opportunities in the United States; into the 1950s in the U.S. and what it was like to live then; into the Knox Girls School on Long Island where de Leyer and his family worked and lived; into snobbish New York Society and the show jumping world and more. Interlaced with the Snowman's Cinderella story are bits of interesting history that occur during the Snowman's life. Sometimes Letts' storytelling is repetitive, and the family seems a little too perfect to be believed, especially since in the Epilogue we learn that Harry and his wife divorce. Nevertheless, it is a compelling story and one that will interest readers of all ages.

Illumination in the Flatwoods
Joe Hutto
The Lyons Press
246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437
www.lyonspress.com
9781558213906, $16.95, www.amazon.com

Joe Hutto is a great storyteller and artist, besides being an astute observer of animal behavior. Illumination in the Flatwoods chronicles the wonderful true life story of wild turkeys. It begins when Hutton acquires a clutch of wild turkey eggs from a neighbor farmer and incubates them. When they hatch they imprint on Joe because he spends so much time with them. In other words they think he is their mother. This all takes place in the Pine Woods of Central Florida. As the poults grow, he takes them on walks, develops a language to communicate with them, and journals the whole experience with his own superb writing and pencil drawings. We follow the hatch mates through their life cycle and feel as deeply as Joe when they disappear or something happens to them. He shows us how smart, friendly and curious wild turkeys are. On their walks the turkeys always knew where the rattlesnakes were first. Nature on PBS showed a terrific one hour special called My Life as a Turkey with the real Joe Hutto. (Available on DVD and Blu-ray.) I had read the book but re-read parts after we got three white commercial turkeys poults to raise. I found turkeys as friendly, personable and curious as Hutto portrays them. (They were Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner anyway.) More amazing though is that he is writing about the illusive wild turkey. Illumination in the Flatwoods is a tremendous read, especially if you like nature and wild things.

Marjorie Thelen, Reviewer
www.marjoriethelen.com


Mayra's Bookshelf

Behind the Columns
Arlette Gaffrey
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Rd - 515, Parker, CO 80134
9781432745943, $19.95, www.outskirtspress.com

Arlette Gaffrey's Behind the Columns is a well-written, compelling historical novel about the romance between a young Creole belle and a handsome, charismatic New Yorker.

New Orleans, 1847.

Having lost both her parents at an early age, Desiree Bordeaux lives with her grandfather, a man with a weakness for drink and gambling. When he suddenly dies, Desiree finds herself in a desperate situation as her beloved plantation Chêne Vue must be auctioned off.

Philippe Jaunet, a hateful man--also a heavy drinker and gambler--who used to know her grandfather, is intent on marrying her, getting the plantation for himself and use it to pay his own debts.

To add to her unhappiness, the man she thinks she loves and whom she believes promised her marriage when she was but a child of ten, has married another woman.

Enter handsome and wealthy Lance Van Buren, who immediately is mesmerized by Desiree's stunning beauty and feisty, proud personality. At first, she despises him, even though he evokes in her the most sensual, unsettling feelings. Then, to her surprise, she discovers that he has won the auction and is the new owner of Chêne Vue. But nothing prepares her for the next shock: he proposes marriage.

Behind the Columns is an entertaining, fast-paced read. Passion and intrigue abound as the novel follows the lives of Desiree and Lance as they marry, move to New York for a while, and have their first child back in New Orleans. Philippe Jaunet remains a villain until the end, haunting Desiree and filling her nights with nightmares. In New York, she must face another villain in the shape of Inga, Lance's sister in law. Love, passion, lies, jealousy--readers will find their share in this book, and then some.

Gaffrey does an excellent job in bringing the old South and the Creole society to life: the food, the fashion, the way of life, the values and beliefs, etc. There's also a lot of interesting information about Creole history which I found fascinating. In short, if you love historical Southern romances a la Gone with the Wind, you'll enjoy Behind the Columns.

J2
Phoebe Wray
DTF Publications
c/o Dark Quest, LLC
23 Alec Drive, Howell, NJ 07731
9781937051525, $14.95, http://darkquestbooks.com

In 2008 I had the pleasure of reviewing JEMMA7729, by Phoebe Wray. Now, four years later, the author has finally come out with the much-awaited sequel, J2.

J2 begins with immediate action at the trial upon which Jemma, who was captured and arrested at the end of Book 1 after rebelling against the oppressive Administrative Government of North America (AGNA), now faces the gallows. In what people are calling "The Trial of the Century," Jemma is pushed on stage in front of an audience to face the shock of her life: her own clone - a younger, smarter and just as gorgeous copy of herself. Needless to say, everybody is in shock, as no one ever expected Jemma to have a clone.

The irony of it is, J2 was created solely for the reenactment of Jemma's criminal exploits during the L.A. Terror of 2208 as a way to celebrate the trial. In other words, J2 was created for entertainment purposes only. But in a twist of fate the situation goes havoc when J2 refuses to reenact something she believes to be untrue. She also discovers why Jemma had become a rebel - or "Mover" - and a saboteur: Jemma had blown up chemical labs where they made ingredients to alter people; she'd been trying to stop the government from altering people's brains.

AGNA's policy was unequivocal: "People who are dangerous to themselves and to others, malcontents, idiots, women who refuse to take their proper place in society, and social misfits, are altered for the greater good."

In Wray's fictional world, every respectful citizen has to stay trapped under the domes of the city because AGNA preaches that the countryside is toxic from the chemicals of endless wars and filled with mutants and deformed. Yet, this is a lie. The countryside, where the rebel Movers reside, is free and safe and beautiful. At the trial, Jemma urges J2 to follow in her footsteps, leave Chicago, escape to the countryside, and find the Movers.

Result? An insurrection. All hell breaks loose in the courtroom, Fedguards start shooting and arresting people...and J2 vows to finish what Jemma started.

J2 is a great sequel to JEMMA7729. Jemma was such a strong yet sympathetic character in the first book, I was wondering how the author was going to top her in this the second one. J2 is just as likable yet in a different way. Even though J2 is strong and brilliant, at the same time she's incredibly innocent and naive about certain things. This makes for a very cute combination. J2 is loyal and brave and will fight for justice no matter what, even if she has to risk her life in the process. There's a lot of action and the pace moves fairly quickly in spite of the author's attention to detail when creating her fictional world. A kick-ass heroine with a kind heart, high-speed adventure, and a sprinkle of romance make J2 a fun, entertaining sci-fi novel.

The Regimental Heroes Historical Romance Series
Jennifer Conner
Books to Go Now
PO Box 1283, Poulsbo, WA 98370
B009N8CCBU, $2.99, www.bookstogonow.com

The Regimental Heroes Historical Romance Series Volume 1 (Boxed Set) [Kindle Edition] is a short, entertaining collection of 4 stories for lovers of historical romance.

"Redemption for a Rogue," is an utterly romantic, sexy and sweet tale about a handsome lord and a young widow.

Old Lord Mitchell pushes his son John to partake in the running of the family's mill and estate on a daily basis, but how can John run a factory successfully when he can barely read? After the death of his brother and his wife in a boating accident, John also has an orphan nephew, Graeme, to care for.

Instead of listening to his father, John stages one drunken episode after another, hoping that his old man will send him away to France or Spain once and for all.

After three months of searching for a placement as governess to support herself and her young son Charles, young widow Vivienne Ravenhill is happy to find a position at the Mitchell estate. Her duty will be to tutor old Mitchell's grandson, Graeme, in the old man's words "the only hope for this family."

The day of her arrival, Vivienne finds young and handsome John Mitchell passed out in the living room. Needless to say, he doesn't make the best of first impressions on her.

However, gradually she comes to know him as the noble, loyal and sensitive man he really is. Encouraged by her offer to help him, he lets her teach him how to read and write, helping him overcome his special disability.

The attraction is immediate between them and tension sparks as they spend more time together. But then old Lord Mitchell dies and John is left with full responsibility of the mill, the estate, and Graeme. Will John forever regain his confidence and get rid of the insecurity that stands in his way to happiness and success?

Set in 1855, "Redemption for a Rogue" is a well-written historical love story full of tenderness and romance. The tale is unusual in that it tackles dyslexia. I'd never read a romance story before with a dyslexic hero, especially a historical one, so that was original.

The characters are likable and genuine and Conner makes the setting come to life. The tale moves fairly quickly and the love segments are exciting and in good taste. If you're a fan of romantic short fiction, I recommend you give this one a try.

Other stories in the collection include: "The Duke and the Lost Night," "The Reluctant Heir," and "The Wounded Nobleman."

Here's a bit about each story:

"The Duke and the Lost Night": Amelia arrives on the doorstep of her childhood friend, the Duke, in the middle of the night with an outrageous plan. If he agrees to ruin her, then she won't be required to marry the cad she doesn't love. Will Spencer do what she desires and go along with her idea, or does he have a very unexpected plan of his own?

"The Reluctant Heir": Clarke, the Earl of Garrison, has returned from war with a dark secret. He holds himself responsible for the death of the younger brother of the woman he loves. Will Adeline be able to unearth the truth as romance and intrigue deepens? Is she strong enough to help Clarke come to grips with the emotional damage and nightmares which plague him?

"The Wounded Nobleman": Ellis Garrison, the son of an Earl, once had much more to offer the beautiful, Callie Dunning. Now he's returned from the war. The war that left him near death and forced to walk with a cane. When Callie nearly sacrifices her safety to save one of Ellis's new carriage horses from being shot by a stable hand, Ellis sees a change in Callie. She is not the spoiled, rich girl he knew. Damage is not always external. Some is inside the soul. Will Callie and Ellis rekindle the mutual attraction they once shared and be able to work through their wounds to give love another chance?

Tracks in the Snow
Sandra H. Esch
Lamp Post Inc.
http://lamppostpubs.com
9781600391910, $12.00

Amber Leaf, Minnesota, 1942.

In spite of the hardships of war, young Jo Bremley lives in considerable happiness with her husband and 7-year old daughter. Then one night, influenced by his best friend, Jo's husband announces that he has decided to join the war. Before he gets a chance to, however, he's the victim of a snowstorm accident. Now a young widow, Jo tries to make ends meet as best as she can by doing laundry for an establishment called O.M. Harrington.

During the year following her husband's death, Jo runs into several difficulties which put her job in danger. Her husband's best friend, whom she's always blamed for her husband's death, sets up a successful law practice; her daughter has a couple of unfortunate incidents with Big Ole, the owner of O.M. Harrington; and Jo doesn't think she'll be able to get her daughter the Christmas gift she deserves. Eventually, through a series of twists, the characters learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness, all in time to celebrate the holiday season.

Though Tracks in the Snow is a slow read, and got me a little frustrated at times, I ultimately enjoyed it. I appreciate the way the author took her time in developing her characters and the question of how she was going to put all the loose ends together at the end kept me reading. At times I found Jo too perfect and goodie-goodie, but in the end she wins me over. I especially like Big Ole and his gradual change from a grumpy old man to a caring person. He has a nice character arc. The story is a snapshot of a family in Minnesota during World War II. The author did a good job portraying this situation.

The ending of Tracks in the Snow is heartwarming, without being preachy. In sum, although the pace of the book is slow, the characterization and the writing are good. If you're looking for a page-turner, this isn't the book for you, but if you like to take your time when reading a story and getting to know the characters, and you appreciate realistic fiction, you'll enjoy Tracks in the Snow.

Mayra Calvani
Reviewer


Paul's Bookshelf

Broken Slate
Kelly Jennings
Crossed Genres Publications
P.O. Box 45316, Somerville MA 02145
9781461074502, $8.99, http://crossedgenres.com

This novel is about a brutal, planet-wide system of slavery. It's also about one person's attempt to push back.

Martin Eduardo was taken off his family's merchant spaceship in his mid-teens. He was put into the contract labor system on the planet Julian, where he has spent the other half of his life (perhaps "contract labor" sounds a little less awful than "slave," but it amounts to the same thing). Among the first things a contract laborer, or "cot," learns is Do Not Fight Back. Any attempt at talking back to your contract holder, or trying to stand up for yourself, leads to an automatic beating. Any attempt to run away is complicated by the computer chip implanted in each cot's shoulder bone, which makes tracking easy. It also leads to a very public murder, in front of the other cots. Also, all cots are assumed to be lazy and lying, even when they are telling the truth.

Martin's contract has been sold six times in the past. He has a decent, but very precarious, relationship with Lord Strauss, his seventh Holder. Strauss is a lecturer at the local university, and finds that Martin actually has a brain, and knows how to use it. A number of times, Martin has sat outside classrooms, listening to the lectures. Strauss has Martin run some of his classes, which does not go over well with the other students. Martin is also kept around for other tasks, which take place in the bedroom, and behind closed doors.

A cot rebellion is brewing in the hills, but it's only a little more than rumors. As it begins to gain momentum, Martin has some serious deciding to do. He is very aware of the penalty for disobedience, but the penalty for obedience may be even higher. Does Martin get his chip removed, and join the rebellion?

This is a really good story about an oppressive social system. The author has also left room for a sequel. It will keep the reader interested, and, yes, it is well worth reading.

Circle Tide
Rebecca K. Rowe
Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
P.O. Box 1714, Calgary AB, T2P 2L7 Canada
9781894063593, $14.95, http://www.edgewebsite.com

Set in Los Angeles in the mid-22nd century, this novel is about two unlikely people on a mission to save the world.

Noah is a rebellious member of high society. His mother runs a Domus, which is something like a family-owned multi-national corporation (but a lot bigger). She is not afraid to roll over people to get what she wants, and is a very dislikeable person. Noah promises that he will deliver a datasphere to the right person. Meantime, an ecological disease called Circle Tide is ravaging the city, a disease that is fast-acting and deadly. Noah is faced with knife-wielding monks and a smart intelligence that wants him dead.

Rika is a Data gatherer (or data thief) whose expensive, and not-paid-for, neural improvements are failing. Her last chance to prove herself, and get out of debt, is to stop Circle Tide (simple, no?). But she has to steal Noah's datasphere.

The pair travel from the top of society to the bottom, accused of crimes thy did not commit. They seek clues to catch a murderer, and keep mankind from being destroyed by Circle Tide.

Here is an excellent piece of society-building. It has enough going on (virtual worlds where memories are stored, for instance) to satisfy anyone. This may not be a very fast read, but it is very much worth the reader's time.

Captives
Barbara Galler-Smith and Josh Langston
Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
P.O. Box 1714, Calgary AB, T2P 2L6 Canada
9781894063531, $14.95, http://www.edgewebsite.com

Part of a trilogy, this historical fantasy is about two druids who must escape slavery, and protect their ancient magic from one who would really abuse it.

As the spiritual representative of his clan, Druid Mallec is loved and respected by all. But he, and they, can't help bu think that the recent calamities befalling their clan means that they have fallen out of favor with their god. Mallec is also troubled by constant visions of a dark-haired woman. He doesn't know who she is, or where she is, but they are meant to be together.

An evil druid named Deidre has woken prematurely from the druid equivalent of suspended animation. She is a power-mad type who is ready to use anybody, or anything (including abusing the ancient magic), to get what she wants. She has Mallec thrown into slavery to get him out of the way, permanently.

Driad Rhonwen is already in slavery, with each master worse than the last. Her rebellious nature gets her plenty of punishment; her expertise in the healing arts is about the only thing keeping her alive. Mallec and Rhonwen (the subject of Mallec's visions) find each other, and eventually escape slavery. Deidre has broken nearly every rule in the druid "book," so they have to deal with her, once and for all. Are Mallec and Rhonwen able to stop Deidre? Do Deidre, and Caradowc, her equally dislikeable son, prevail?

This one is surprisingly good. It's got ancient magic, love, loss, slavery, betrayal; everything a great fantasy novel needs. It's also full of great writing, from start to finish. If the other parts of this trilogy are as good as this, then here is a major fantasy find.

Paul Lappen, Reviewer
www.deadtreesreview.com


Peggy's Bookshelf

Animal Fair
Adapted and illustrated by Ponder Goembel
Pinwheel Books
99 White Plains Road
Tarrytown, NY 10591
http://pinwheelbooks.com
9780761456421, $12.99, www.amazon.com

Animal Fair is a popular, old song believed to be sung by American sailors as long ago as 1898. Life magazine called it a cadence of soft shoe tap dancing in 1941. Burl Ives, Barney, Captain Kangaroo, and many more have sung different versions of the song over the years. Ponder Goembel's adaptation of Animal Fair is not about the music. It's all about the dazzling and entertaining illustrations. The words can be sung or simply read. The classic lyrics to Animal Fair include a monkey, a baboon, and an elephant. Goembel has added the talents of seals, kangaroos, toucans, chimps, bears, parrots, and skunks to the mix for a rollicking good time at the fair. The spectacular illustrations alone are worth the price of admission.

Ties That Bind
Natalie R. Collins
St. Martin's Paperbacks
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
9780312941994, $7.99, www.amazon.com

After six months on the job, Detective Sam Montgomery was having second thoughts about the dubious honor of being the first woman detective in Kanesville, Utah. Having fled a relationship and a case gone bad in Salt Lake City, her hometown provided a safe haven - or so she thought. Until another teen died, the third in a string of recent teen deaths that appeared to be suicides. What really gets the young detective's attention is that all the teens died the same way her sister, Callie died when Sam was only six years old. Her own hunch that the deaths are somehow connected, even after all these years, terrifies her. When the next victim is a member of her own family, Sam knows there's a serial killer on the loose. But in order to solve this case, she must re-live the death of her big sister over and over as she comes to terms with her mistakes in the past. Natalie Collins, the Queen of Mormon thrillers, captures readers yet again with "Ties That Bind." Gripping, psychological suspense combined with a chilling murder mystery and a hint of romance to spice things up is the best recipe for scrumptious reading. But watch out - the ending will reach out and grab you.

Peggy Tibbetts, Reviewer
www.peggytibbetts.net


Richard's Bookshelf

Soaring Hope: Imagining Life As It Ought to Be
Lynn Thrush
Destiny Image Publishing, Inc.
P. O. Box 310, Shippensburg, Pa 17257-0310
9780768487763, $15.99, www.amazon.com

A Message of Hope, Imagination, and Transforming Optimism

Endorsed by church leaders, seminarians, and Christian educators "Soaring Hope" brings a positive message of hope and transforming optimism to Christians everywhere.

Lynn Thrush, pastor and Bible teacher, draws from the teachings of Jesus in His prayer for God's will for the "world" from "The Lord's Prayer," found in chapter six of the gospel of Matthew. Thrush challenges the reader to replace fatalism and negativity with an irrepressible message of hope and an eager anticipation of seeing the world as God intended us to. Thrush paints Biblical pictures of hope, restoration, and an eager anticipation of revealing the good news Jesus delivered in Mark's gospel.

In the chapter entitled "The Rule of God" Thrush discusses the" tragedy of the squelched imagination." He attributes this in part to the misunderstanding of the Greek meaning in many New Testament texts regarding the good news of the kingdom common to many doomsday and dispensational teachers. He calls the reader to demonstrate their faith and to make a difference resulting in changed lives.

Rich in Biblical examples, Thrush challenges the reader to possess the land, to take steps to contradict hopelessness, and to imagine life as it ought to be. Thrushes' writing is articulate, relevant, and offers an opportunity to explore a new approach to Biblical application and interpretation in light of reality.

"Soaring Hope: Imagining Life As It Ought to Be" presents a positive message of hope, imagination, and transforming optimism.

Practicing the Presence of Jesus
Wally Armstrong
Summerside Press
Box 5814, Harlan IA 51593
9781609367022, $12.99, www.amazon.com

A Model for Seeking the Presence of Jesus and Experiencing the Joy of Personal Revival

The concept of Wally Armstrong's "Practicing the Presence of Jesus" resonated with me. Visualizing Jesus as a present day mentor, confidant, and friend has often been a bit illusive for me. Like Wally I found myself intrigued by the idea of Jesus' presence in the world today in the same way he walked with the disciples over 2,000 years ago.

Wally was impressed Leslie Weatherhead in his book "The Transforming Friendship," he went on to discover the incredible gift of friendship with Jesus. He describes how he began to practice His presence, how he allowed Jesus to transform his heart and life. He learned to experience encounters which led to a unique interactive relationship with Jesus.

Step by Step Wally invites the reader how to discover, how to meet, and walk, in a friendship with Jesus. Wally's writing is engaging and inspiring, demonstrating a transparency that authenticates the reality of his spiritual journey. Becoming a follower and friend of Jesus is intentional, interactive, and dynamic.

"Practicing the Presence of Jesus" is for anyone seeking to know God, desiring personal revival and freedom, for anyone with a deep spiritual hunger to know Jesus in a more intimate relational companionship.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review purposes. The opinions expressed are my own.

Heart for the Game
Simon Keith, Jason Cole, Don Yaeger
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way, Suite A200
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
www.createspace.com
9781475195132, $9.99, www.amazon.com

Moment of Truth - A Formula for Championship

"Heart for the Game: The Incredible Saga of Simon Keith" is a team effort. Sports reporter Jason Cole collaborates with bestselling author, editor, and business leader Don Yaeger to tell Simon Keith's incredible story.

Simon is one of the longest living heart transplant recipients in the world and the first person to ever come back from a heart transplant to play professional sports, a man who went on to live a full and complete life.

The writer's skillfully capture Simon's "guts and determination" as they describe his perseverance to overcome obstacles, his ability to dream dreams, and to take on personal challenges. He is portrayed as one willing to do whatever it takes to succeed with a "laser focus" on his goals.

In 1986 young Simon Keith was on his way to play in the World Cup in Mexico when he was diagnosed with a fatal heart disease with only a few weeks to live. Simon never gave up his dream but persevered. This is the story of the gift of a heart donation, a second chance at life for Simon, and the lessons he learned throughout his battle to survive.

Simon received the heart of a seventeen year old donor. Twenty-five years later Simon sought out the family of this young donor, the Fields family. He wanted to learn more about their son James and to thank them for their gift. He reflects on this meeting as they gathered at the gravesite of James Fields. This meeting is poignant.

"Heart for the Game" is an important book for the victim of any cardiac condition, their caregivers, and families, soccer players, fans, motivational speakers, and life coaches. Simon Keith's is a story of inspiration, encouragement, and, motivation.

A review copy of this book was provided for review purposes. The opinions expressed are my own.

18-Wheeler Jihad
Ken Bontrager
Outskirts Press
10940 S. Parker Rd. - 541, Parker, CO 80134
9781432795047, $14.95, www.amazon.com

Suspense, International Intrigue - Christian Faith Tested

"18-Wheeler Jihad" is a fast paced Christian Suspense novel that takes the reader from a small Midwestern town, to Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Central America. Will and Patricia Scott are in the middle of a terrorist plot of unbelievable proportions that test their faith and ingenuity as they try to make sense of the intelligence information they have assembled.

Novelist Ken Bontrager, recognized for linking Bible Prophecy to current events, writes with convincing authority on a broad base of issues. From; the determination of radical Islamist terrorists, Muslim rituals, dogma, the Koran, and the message of Christianity Bontrager details background on the South American drug cartel, hi tech weaponry, submarine operations, Middle East languages, and aquatic life as background material to his story line.

Ken shows amazing insight into human nature through his character development, and dialog. He reveals their motivation, strengths and weakness. His portrayal of evil is characterizes in the threat of unprincipled terrorism. His Christian characters reveal the reality of humanness as well as that of being partakers of the character of Jesus as they offer acceptance, forgiveness and genuine love as they describe the simplicity of the Gospel message.

"18-Wheeler Jihad" is well written fiction with a message, informative, and instructional filled with suspense intrigue and action.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review purposes. The opinions expressed are my own.

Pure Gold: Tried By Fire
Barry Pelphrey
Outskirts Press, Inc.
10940 S. Parker Rd - 515, Parker CO 80134
9781432795368, $14.95, www.amazon.com

Refined by Fire - Transformation from Brokenness - A Rebuilding Process

Barry Pelphrey, Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Outreach Ministries in Piketon, Ohio describes his spiritual journey, a testimony of brokenness, transformation, and a spiritual growth in "Pure Gold: Tried by Fire," the companion volume to "Walking through Hale," Angie Pelphrey's story.

Successive years of drought without rain forced Barry into filing bankruptcy and downsizing his once successful outdoor and power equipment company. The added concern for his wife Angie, who was now fighting addiction to prescription pain medications relating to her fibromyalgia and a work related injury, along with the responsibility of caring for three children while pastoring a growing church was draining Barry physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The crushing blow came when Angie was charged with a felony and incarcerated. Barry tells his story of how through brokenness he was transformed into the person God intended him to be. Devotional thoughts from his sermons during this period and thoughts he shared with Angie in personal letters during the ten months of her detention reflect God's working in rebuilding Barry's life. These devotional thoughts, messages, and personal observations are inspirational, challenging, and motivating and well-articulated.

"Pure Gold" is written to show how God can take someone religiously insecure through the midst of their brokenness, rebuild, and radically transform them through a relationship with Jesus, give them peace, and increase their ministry.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review purposes. The opinions expressed are my own.

Richard R. Blake, Reviewer
http://richardrblake.wordpress.com


Riva's Bookshelf

A Date with Death
Louisa Bacio
Decadent Publishing
http://www.decadentpublishing.com
9781613333631, ASIN B00916WA8E $2.99
NOOK Book 2940014811088 $2.99

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I saw the title of this book, but it wasn't the warm, loving, but erotic tale that I got.

Maise finds herself in heaven's waiting room, awaiting her final judgment. At 24, Maise is filled regrets, but key among them is dying a virgin. It wasn't that she was saving herself for marriage or anything - she just never had the opportunity. But as Maise is mourning this fact she finds a business card for the mysterious Madame Evangeline. She vaguely recalls taking the business card off the windshield of her car and placing it on her seat the night she died. Somehow, it ended up in her purse here in this waiting room. From the waiting room she contacts Madame Eve who, after finding out Maise hasn't faced her judgment yet, assures her she can meet her needs and set her up for one night of purely sensual pleasure.

Maise thinks of her perfect man, presses *69 on her phone and suddenly finds herself transported to a Castillo resort. Maise is in for a night beyond her wildest dreams, but what will happen when the morning comes?

Reece is in mourning for his brother who recently died. He had applied to Madame Eve's 1 Night Stand dating service only because it was a gift for his twenty-ninth birthday from his brother. There had been no response, but this morning he receives a message that his "perfect match" has been found. Reece isn't sure he believes in perfect matches anymore, but out of respect for his brother Reece decides to follow through, after all, it's only a commitment to a one night stand.

Maise's beauty leaves Reece breathless and from the moment Maise lays eyes on Reece something wonderful and new stirs within her. Their night is amazing as Reece makes love to her over and over again making her feel like the most important woman in the world. How can they overcome the huge obstacle standing in the way of their happiness?

Bacio sets the perfect tone for the story it is bittersweet, filled with both discovery and regret. It is erotic, but romantic and so touching you can't help but sympathize with Maise and eventually Reece over the untenable position they find themselves in. Madame Eve is known for bringing about a "happily ever after" for the couples she works with, but can she pull it off this time?

Bacio makes the story rich, erotic, sweet and believable. She adds touches that make Maise's first, and only, experience with making love full of desire and memorable moments that will last her forever - they have to, this is the only chance she'll ever have to make love before she walks through those doors and into her judgment.

I definitely recommend A Date with Death. It is erotic, romantic and everything a love story should be while presenting some unique obstacles our couple will have to overcome if they are ever going to be able to have their happily ever after.

An Unexpected Return
Jessica E. Subject
Decadent Publishing
http://www.decadentpublishing.com
9781613332993, Kindle ASIN B0086POQOW, $3.99

The Emerald Planet, Elatia, also known as the pleasure planet brings tourists from all over the galaxies to experience the one of a kind offerings of the planet. Young Xia has lived here since she was a baby abandoned by her parents and left to be raised by the Adamo Mistress Kalara.

Adamos are those trained in the skills that will bring pleasure to another. All her life Xia has wanted to Adamos mistress like her guardian Kalara. All she wants is the ability to be independent and to make her own way, and never to have to think about the Terran parents, who abandoned her into Kalara and Jacobus care on Elatia. Still, there is a small part of her that wonders what it would be like to have a family and children.

Aristides is a prince betrothed to a woman he feels nothing for. His best friend Ben on the other hand is madly in love with her, so they perform a bait-and-switch to get the girl, Madelia, into bed with Ben. They arrange for the Ben and Madelia to get caught together in bed by the king which will result in Aristides being able to set the punishment - the two of them will bound to each other for eternity, which is exactly what Ben wants.

Fleeing the palace Aristides, determined to see the universe, sets out for Elatia to experience the ecstasies the planet promises, but before he can do more than set-up the appointment with his Adamo, he meets Xia in the streets of Elatia. He finds himself immediately fascinated by her, so much so, that he considers cancelling his appointment with his Adamo and going out looking for her, but before he can do this, his Adamo arrives, and much to his pleasure, it is Xia. Xia is furious that the Otarian who made her feel so disconcerted, and if truth be told, so much like a woman, during their encounter earlier that day, the one who has been on her mind ever since, could even hire an Adamo! How could he even want to be with an Adamo after what she thought had passed between them in those brief moments together? This situation leads to the conflicts that drive the rest of the book forward and leave you wondering precisely what is in store for Xia and Aristides.

An Unexpected Return, while complete in and of itself, is the first book in a series by Jessica Subject. It is slightly different from her 1 Night Stand books, even though it is by the same publisher, Decadent Publishing. It is a new line from them and while the stories are just as hot, and Subject definitely retains her title as queen of romantic erotica, this story is more complex than those offered through the 1 Night Stand imprint. I enjoyed the more complicated storyline and the fact that once the book was over, there was just enough of a teaser to leave me eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series and the additional complications it promises to bring to bear on an already interesting tale.

Hannah
Sharon Poppen
Virtual Tales
9781897442074, $10.99

Hannah by Sharon Poppen is the story of the struggle of one woman against the cruelty of the early American west. Hannah is the main character of the story and finds herself beset by circumstances that would make even Job cringe. Shattered and alone Hannah holds onto the one thing that promises to keep her going - thoughts of revenge, but when the opportunity for a new life arrives will her need for revenge keep her from what may be a new chance at happiness?

Poppen has a real knack for storytelling, especially for stories set in what used to be the raw western lands of the US. Whether it is digging for gold in Alaska with Abby, hiding from the law south of the border or looking for revenge in Texas border towns, Poppen never fails to write strong female leads who are more than equal to their male counterparts. There is never a wilting rose, even among the "damsels in distress" and Poppen manages to make characters that come to life on the page.

The cast of characters from Hannah is good, but it is not among the best Poppen has written. With the exception of Hannah herself, the characters tend to be a little one-dimensional, which would not be quite the problem it is were it not for the fact that the male lead is the stereotypical heroic Western male, except for the fact he tries to get Hannah to give up on revenge and get on with her life. I can almost picture Jimmy Stewart playing his role (I am dating myself I know, but it is still true). The bad guy is as evil as can be, the brothers all stick together and never fight or disagree.

Please do not misunderstand me, I enjoyed Hannah immensely, but when compared to other work by Poppen it seems weaker than most. It is still a really good story, just not as riveting as Abby: Finding More Than Gold or After the War, Before the Peace. It is still a good romance and an interesting story of revenge with more than one crazy twist along the way. I would recommend it, I would just recommend other work by Poppen first.

Surfing the Middle East
Jesse Aizenstat
Casbah Publishing
9780983700913, $26.95

Surfing the Middle East presents the ultimate dichotomy, a Californian surfer of Jewish descent making his way through the volatile regions of Israel, Palestine, Jordon and Lebanon. Along the way, he meets Israeli soldiers, fellow surfers in both Israel and Lebanon and realizes the goal he set out to accomplish, to surf the Mediterranean from Israel to Lebanon. What makes Aizenstat's journey so remarkable is the political commentary, and the political activities Jesse becomes part of.

He talks frankly of the Palestinian situation. He explains it in terms Americans, Jews and the world can understand.

I am Jewish, so at first I was taken aback by Aizenstat's tale. Sure, I liked his story of hanging out with Jewish surfers who were just like him, but when he talked of his time in Nablus and the terror the late night Israeli raids had caused him, both back then and in the present, I was taken aback. Here was a person of Jewish descent sympathizing with the Palestinians. As the story went on though, I found myself seeing his perspective more and more. I saw on the page, through his eyes, the Palestinians who face off weekly, unarmed, against the IDF. They are protesting the seizure of their farmland. They even took their case to the Israeli Supreme Court and won the return of their land, but the military refuses to allow them back on to it, so every week they gather at the fence to protest and to try to take down one layer of the double-layered fence that separates them from land that is rightfully theirs. Weekly they are gassed with a tear gas in powder form by the fully armed IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). It is criminal.

Through Jesse's eyes, I saw the refugee camps filled with Palestinians who are still living in Lebanon. Camps that were meant to be temporary have instead been filled with generations of refugees being born and dying there in abject poverty.

I have to say Aizenstat's book was an eye-opening experience for me. I don't know what the solution in Palestine/Israel is, I'm not an advocate of the two nation idea, but perhaps it truly is the only reasonable, right and humane solution to an untenable situation. I thank Aizenstat for deciding to surf the Middle East, and open my eyes to a situation I was willing not to see for religious reasons. Now that very same religious conviction tells me, it is time for a change.

Surfing the Middle East isn't all politics and protests, in fact that is actually the tale of the minority of the story. It is instead a story of how simple things, like surfing can unite people across the world in a way that humanizes all of them because they are no longer defined by nationalistic, or religious stereotypes but rather by the common humanity and love of life that binds us all.

Tracy M. Riva
Reviewer


Sandra's Bookshelf

Loggers Volume 7 Tales of the Wild Series
Rick Steber
Bonanza Publishing
Box 204, Prineville, OR 97754
http://bonanzapublishing.com
094513407X, $4.95, www.amazon.com

What always amazes me is that each book Mr. Steber writes is about something that I had never really thought of before. Each page is a different story filled with so much knowledge. People could say how can you learn so much in just one page? My response is to buy the book for yourself and you will see.

This is a book written primarily for school age children but believe me adults can learn also. It is fascinating to me. No matter what your age you will enjoy this book.

The title of this book will tell you what the subject matter is. I did not think I would enjoy reading about loggers, nor the importance of what they did for us.

Rated G

Mystery at the Lake House #1 MONSTERS BELOW
Laura S. and William L.B Wharton
Broad Creek Press
P.O. Box 43, Mt. Airy, NC 27030
9780983714828, $9.99 pbk / $1.99 wireless www.amazon.com

This book was a delight to read. Even as an adult, I loved the mystery and characters of this book. What a joy that you can read a book to your kids, or grand-kids, and not have to worry about the language. Nor the plot being way beyond the age group this book is.

Jock Avery is staying the summer with his grandparents at their Lake House. Yet this year will be different; as there are new kids next door for him to meet. Together they are a team and out to solve a mystery. Jock hears strange sounds at night that he can't identify nor could his new friends.

The ending is a hoot, and I can't say enough about how much I think kids from 6 to 12 will love this book also. This book brings in fresh air I think for this genre.

Lodestone Book Four "Seeds Across The Sky"
Mark Whiteway
Amazon Digital Services
P.O. Box 81207, Seattle, WA 98108
ASIN BOO9WPZT12, $3.99, www.amazon.com

Lodestone Book 4

I was amazed that the author was able to take us to a new dimension in the fourth installment of the series. One filled with so many twist that anyone who has read the first three books of this series will be surprised.

The book can also stand alone, but I recommend that people go back and read the other books first. In the weak economy we are facing here in the USA, buying books can be a luxury. I would say if you like science fiction, you have come to the right place.

I have been surprised by what happens in this book, but never disappointed. A tremendously likable book. The way this book ended I can see where there needs to be at least another book in the series.

I would buy this book, as well as the other three. In fact this would make a great movie or television series.

Rated G

Sandra Heptinstall
Reviewer


Teri's Bookshelf

View from the Edge
Michael Kasenow
Infinity Publishing
c/o Buy Books On The Web
1094 New Dehaven Street, #100
West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2713
9780741470973, $18.95, www.amazon.com

"When you get up in the morning---duck."

How many of us have often wondered at the end of the day if we would have been better off to just stay in bed?

After being treated for a mental breakdown, Dr. Joshua Feenics is returning to his regular life after his leave of absence.

Joshua Feenics often feels that way now. He is a college professor who happens to be the head of his department. Basically he is bombarded with the complaints from students and faculty with the expectation of his mediation with each particular situation. Some days this proves to be extremely challenging especially when both seem to just lack common sense.

Josh is well aware of the professors in his department, especially their weaknesses especially their prejudices. Another student concern is that there seems to be a possible religious cult on campus involving some of his students.

This small university is also being strongly considered as the site for the future display center for some newly discovered archeological wonders, possibly part of the Ten Commandments written by God. The authenticity seems to collaborate with the time period. However to Josh, something just doesn't feel right.

With his personal life, Josh is fairly certain that his wife is having an affair. Her moods yo-yo and her excessive drinking makes their relationship definitely questionable. Now she wants them to sell their dream house on a lake so that they can start over since Josh had a mental breakdown. So why does she want to build a gazebo and a new dock? It seems the only solid relationship he has is his only son, Blake.

View from the Edge has a slow beginning as this introductory section centers around Josh and his daily life as well revealing the baggage of his abusive childhood. The few uplifting areas in his life usually revolve around his son and his friendships at the university. However, the development of the characters is amazing strong and revealing to each of their personal character in this part.

Quickly though, View from the Edge becomes a page turner. Although not technically a mystery since this is really Josh's narrative, there are a many crimes and mysteries which develop and are discovered throughout this finely interwoven tale. With each aspect unfolding, Josh discovers his strengths and involvement in each mystery.

Michael Kasenow is a geology professor at Eastern Michigan University. He is the author of many science books, won numerous awards for his poetry, and the well-received novel The Last Paradise.

The lessons learned in reading View from the Edge advises each of us to keep going each day, no matter what are problems or challenges are along the way. Why? "We do what we can to feel good about it. But it takes you, you don't take it." Think about that when your life seems overwhelming and read View from the Edge.

The Black Isle
Sandi Tan
Grand Central Publishing
c/o Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10017
www.hachettebookgroup.com
9780446563925, $24.99, www.amazon.com

Living life as an elderly woman of Asian descent can be trying. Finding a story about your life in a library can either fill you with pride or dread. She feels the horror of everything written about her and the depressed thought of these lies in print. However, the truth of one aspect of this book is true. She can talk to ghosts.

Few of us really know the horrors of those who lived through a war occupied by an enemy. Some are able to still live in their home although many are displaced being evicted from their home by opposing forces who might not understand your history, culture, and language.

Being born in Shanghai in 1922, Ling discovered that being the female half in a set of twins was not to her advantage. Her brother, Li, was obviously favored by the family, especially their mother. Ling's mother is extremely fearful of others and often refuses to allow the children to leave the house. Her family lived well with her father being a teacher with the family continuing to grow with the birth of another set of twins, both girls, but the mother's paranoia of the outside world also growing.

With the advent of World War II approaching, the family grew in fear of being invaded by their enemies, the Japanese. To save themselves and especially the males, Ling's father took her brother and herself to the Black Isle to begin a new and hopefully safer life. However, life seldom happens as we hope.

Ling also possesses an unusual gift. She sees ghosts. To her, they are as obvious as real people and are even difficult to sometimes differentiate who is alive and dead.

In this epic novel covering about seventy years, the reader views the life on a Pacific Island through a multitude of influences and change. She also has the unique perspective of these changes upon the spirits of the island who frequently have their own opinions of modern progress. Black Isle is well-developed with realistic characters in a well-organized story spanning much of Ling's life. The story reads as her narrative explaining her choices including many of the horrors of the Japanese occupation on the island as well as being a British colony.

The Black Isle is the debut novel for Singapore native Sandi Tan. She was educated in th UK and the United States and currently lives in California.

This unusual haunting novel combines history with fantasy to narrate a truly memorable tale.

Poison
Sara Poole
St. Martin's Griffin
c/o St. Martin's Press
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.stmartins.com
9780312609832, $14.99, www.amazon.com

How do you prove that you are the best poisoner? Simple, poison the person in that position with a potion that is not easily recognizable, maybe your own personal concoction.

Francesca Giordano grew up in the notorious house of Rodrigo Borgia with her father as the chief poisoner. When her father is murdered, Francesca is obsessed with revenge. Who is responsible for his death? Her father's successor is in a dangerous position and Francesca knows that she is more qualified even if she is a woman in this male-dominated time period. She proves this by poisoning the poisoner and admits it. This gutsy move could have her condemned to death but instead she manages to become the poisoner. Who could be better qualified?

Poison is a tale of the Renaissance with the multiple problems in Italy from the expulsion of the Jewish people in Spain to the wide spread corruption within the Vatican and how the two interwove. Many of the Jews who came to Rome with nothing since their possessions were confiscated. Rome created a refugee camp that kept these people in a confined area regardless of their money.

Poison speaks of the history of Rome especially around the Vatican and how these two interacted as well as the physical aspects of the immense tunnel system within and under the buildings and how they were frequently utilized.

The character of Francesca and her involvement with the Borgias allows you to make your own judgments about the Borigas, especially Lucrezia in that her youth and naivety matures with her circumstances as being a pawn in this male world. Author Sara Poole lets the reader view these people through non-judgmental or prejudicial eyes with this notorious family.

My one criticism of this novel involved that one event near the end which involved a child that seemed too convenient and coincidental. However, the relationships with the glass maker and the pharmacist's wife in the Jewish ghetto were superbly written in visualizing the events, conditions, and even understanding the smells of the time period.

Poison is a superb first novel in this series by Sarah Poole representing the Renaissance and life in Italy. I love forward to reading the other novels in this series.

Ghostwriter
Lissa Bryan
The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House
http://ph.thewriterscoffeeshop.com
97816121312211, $16.99

Ghostwriter is the story of Sara Howell who is not enjoying life right now. She is currently unemployed and not in a relationship which is just the opposite of her life a month ago. Realizing that she can no longer afford her apartment since her former boyfriend moved out, she begins to look for a cheaper place to live. Is this a struggle or fate stepping in to show Sarah her destiny? (This is a romance so it is acceptable to write that sentence.)

A local politician has contracted with Sarah for her to ghostwrite about her predictable and boring life. So she temporarily has some money coming in and just needs a place to live. How do you find a decent place to live when the costs need to be less than half of what you used to pay?

With the help of a local realtor, Sarah finds the house of her dreams. It an old house on an island that can only be reached by boat Added to that, the house was owned by her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared around the year 1925 after living there with his wife. Being that there were no direct descendants, his family inherited the house with numerous conditions while they continue to profit from the royalties on his books. The family has mixed feelings about having someone living in the house since they are certain that it is haunted by Seth, however, they also choose not to tell Sarah this. Since no one publicly knows when or how Seth died, this secret is not shared with Sarah. Great! A broke writer in a haunted house of their favorite author. What could possibly happen?

Sarah finds it difficult to write about this politician who has only given Sarah the information that she chooses to share, she is also experiencing excruciating headaches, and then the ghost himself, Seth. For some reason, Seth does not want her nosing around his things in the attic or even being in his house.

Ghostwriter is a paranormal romance. What reader has not fallen in love with the works of a talented author and dream of meeting the actual person who created these masterpieces of expression. For Sarah, this is her dream and the reality of life is having to daily write this biographical.

Lissa Bryan in that through the world of books she has had numerous life experiences. Although is the real world, she has published many stories with Ghostwriter being her first novel.

Reminiscent of the old movie, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, this tale will delight every romance reader with well-developed characters, a logical chronology, and an intensity that makes this novel a fast novel to read. You do not want to leave this story once you begin reading. The storyline is enjoyable and Ms. Bryan has a gift of placing the reader in the protagonist's shoes.

Definitely, Lissa Bryan, is an author who truly understands the relationship between the reader, the novel, and the author.

I wonder about the circumstances of many of my favorite authors now. Do I dare visit the places where they lived and died?

Make Believe
Edward Ifkovic
Poisoned Pen Press
6962 E. First Ave., #103, Scottsdale, AZ 85251
www.poisonedpenpress.com
9781461200823, $15.95, www.amazon.com

"Others find peace of mind in pretending. Couldn't you? Couldn't I? Couldn't we?" Oh, the good old days with Broadway musicals where most people knew all the songs. Among all those wonderful shows, one always stood apart in that it had a mixed happy/sad ending. Yes, the happy endings gave us a warm feeling inside, but the mixed ending made you think about the story and the message in the story. That is always how I have viewed the musical, Show Boat. Edna Ferber wrote the novel Show Boat and many others highly acclaimed novels even winning the Nobel Prize in literature. When Show Boat became a musical it had numerous barriers to knockdown, one of which was the author not always supporting the production. With the 1951 remake of the 1936 movie production, this particular novel is a mystery that surrounds the details of the movie, the actors, and the behind the scenes dramas including infidelity and the Senate investigation of the Hollywood well-known personalities and their possible affiliation with the communist party.

In Make Believe, Edna Ferber decides to attend the opening of this magnificent production in Hollywood, not for further publicity, but in support of her long-time friend Max Jefferies who has just been blacklisted by the McCarthy hearings and his name is being erased from the film credits. Unfortunately, Max is murdered and Ms. Ferber utilizes her writing skills in investigating this unsolved crime. Could it be his widow whose former mob husband was also killed? Could it be Frank Sinatra whose career is quickly falling being that he has recently left his wife for Ava Gardner? Could it be a member of America First who doesn't want these hidden Communists corrupting their country? All of these are possible, but who else?

Make Believe, entitled from a song in the musical, is an accurate and enthralling portrait of the time period, the people, and Show Boat. Complete with the Hollywood gossip of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, this novel quickly and neatly allows the reader to actually be a part of both the investigation and to meet the people while still solving the mystery of who killed Max.
Edward Ifkovic has written numerous novel with Make Believe being his third in his Edna Ferber series with the prequel Escape Artist and Lone Star. He has taught literature at a community college in Connecticut for thirty years.

For those of us who were not born at this time, Make Believe is a wonderful snapshot of the time period as well as the history of the actual show mixed with a well-thought-out mystery encompassing the time period and the well-known characters. Warning or suggestion: Since I started reading this novel, the soundtrack of Show Boat has been the background music. Just play the soundtrack.

Teri Davis
Reviewer


Theodore's Bookshelf

The Skeleton Box
Bryan Gruley
Touchstone
c/o Simon & Schuster
1230 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10020
9781416563662, $25.00, www.amazon.com

A very old and deep-seated secret brings to an end the Starvation Lake trilogy. It begins with a series of home invasions in the quaint Michigan town on Bingo Night, when inhabitants are obviously away from their houses. The only mystery, however, is that nothing seems to be missing and the sheriff's inability to solve the crimes is affecting his reelection efforts.

Then the home of Gus Carpenter's mother, who appears to be in the early throes of dementia, is invaded on a night she chooses to go to sleep instead of playing bingo, and her best friend is found dead on the bathroom floor, bringing Gus to accelerate his investigation as editor of the local paper, and uncovering a scandal of epic and personal proportions rooted in the long past.

This novel is somewhat less satisfying than the preceding two books in the series, despite the same characters and setting. The town's (and the author's) enthusiasm for ice hockey remains pleasant and exciting, and Gus' efforts to uncover the truth are rewarding. The writing is on the same high plane of its predecessors, but somehow it doesn't quite measure up to that admittedly lofty standard.

Frankly, if this does in fact conclude the Starvation Lake series, I'll miss the town, and I hope the author has another gem up his sleeve.

Recommended.

Robert B. Parker's Lullaby
Ace Atkins
Putnam
c/o Penguin Group USA
375 Hudson St., NY, NY 10014
9780399158032, $26.95, www.amazon.com

It is completely understandable that publishers and families would be reluctant to give up a long-standing franchise. In the case of Dick Francis, at least, his son Felix, who did research for many of the father's novels, then co-wrote them before taking over alone, keeping it not only in the family but on a par with the originals, had a full basic grounding. Ace Atkins, a successful author in his own right, was picked to keep the Robert B. Parker's Spenser series alive and well.

The plot involves a 14-year-old girl, Mattie Sullivan, who visits Spenser's office one day to hire him to find her mother's murderer, which murder had occurred four years earlier. Upon his reluctance to take on such a case, she goads him into looking into the case file, in which Spenser finds an open-and-shut case against the man convicted of the crime. The girl says she saw two thugs force her mother into a car the night she was killed, and is not only convinced they are the murderers but that the wrong man is in jail. She continues to force Spenser to pursue the case and he does, along with Hawk, Vinnie, Belson and Quirk, Parker's well defined characters.

Well, the action and story progression is in keeping with Parker, with Spenser quips and Hawk comebacks peppered throughout. I for one do not ever remember Parker using profane language, which gratuitously permeates this book. Maybe Atkins thought it would endear his efforts to a new generation numb to such language. If so, perhaps he should rethink this technique. On the whole, the approach is heavy-handed, and not as subtle as that of the master. Nor is the prose as terse and sharp. If one is to make a judgment, based on this initial endeavor, practice may not become perfect.

Midwinter Blood
Mons Kallentoft, author
Neil Smith, translator
Emily Bestler Books/Atria
c/o Simon & Schuster
1230 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10020
9781451642476, $25.99, www.amazon.com

It would be easy to blame the translator for the slow, plodding read of this first novel in a series of what purports to be police procedurals, but it would not be true. It appears to this reader to be the result of the author's writing, and an editor who did not live up to the task. This Swedish novel reminds me of the stories told on how Thomas Wolfe created his work: He wrote and wrote, endlessly, delivering reams and reams of paper to his publisher. It was only Maxwell Perkins, a brilliant editor, who made sense out of it all. Well, whoever edited this Swedish book was no Maxwell Perkins. And it is difficult to judge if the author's attempt to write this book is on Wolfe's level.

One has to approach the novel on two levels. First, as a whodunit, then as the author's loftier endeavor to write it as a higher form of literature. To begin with, a rather obese man is found hanging nude from an oak tree, severely cut up. It falls to Malin Fors, a single mother of a 13-year-old girl, and her partner, Zeke, to lead the crime unit's efforts to solve the murder. The case becomes more complicated as the investigation progresses, with a lot of past history. If the book kept it that simple, it might have made more sense. But then the author's more esoteric writing introduces observations and asides that really add little to the narrative, especially italicized statements from the victim who hovers over the proceedings as a spirit.

As far as characters are concerned, there is little in the way of real development. Malin is a frustrated woman, possibly alcohol-dependent, yet a determined, driven detective. There is much about her inter-action with her daughter, but it is hardly enough to define either person. And there is little more to define the rest of the cast as well. Maybe the author chose to add this information in the future novels in the series. But the question is: Will I want to find out?

Elegy for Eddie
Jacqueline Winspear
Harper Perennial
c/o HarperCollins
10 E. 53rd St., NY, NY 10022
9781451655827, $15.99, www.amazon.com

The Maisie Dobbs series, now with nine entries, has taken her from World War I, where she served as a nurse, to the cusp of the Second World War. In this novel, there are three themes which can tend to confuse the reader until the author brings them together and makes sense out of what at first appear to be separate subplots.

To start with, a delegation from Lambeth, scene of Maisie's childhood, visits her to engage her services as an investigator to find out how a young man died in a paper factory. The other two plot lines, one more personal to her than the other, has Maisie questioning her own motives and standards as well as her relationship with her lover; and the last involving the stealth campaign of Winston Churchill to prepare Great Britain for the possible war with Nazi Germany.

The book is equal to its predecessors in characterization and human interest. Obviously, it is more political in tone than its forerunners, given the time in which it takes place: the depression era and rise of Adolf Hitler. While Maisie's introspections may be overdone, they certainly are in keeping with the character.

Recommended.

Cop to Corpse
Peter Lovesey
Soho Crime
853 Broadway, NY, NY 10003
97816169507810, $25.00, www.amazon.com

There's an old saying (sort of): If you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it will stick. Well that is the approach Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond takes in this, the 12th novel in the series, to solve the case of three shooting murders of patrolling bobbies. Most of his theories turn out to be meaningless, but, after all, as another old saying goes, you can't otherwise get there from here.

The investigation is complicated by the fact that the third cop killed is from Diamond's own office, while the other two took place weeks earlier in other locales. As a result, headquarters is in charge of the investigation, and the lead officer is convinced they are dealing with a serial killer using an illegal automatic rifle. Diamond, of course, goes off on his own in his inimitable fashion.

The novel is a welcome addition to a much-loved series, and the investigation is followed in great detail. Diamond is portrayed as an intuitive genius, although he exhibits in this caper a great deal of physical effort. Written in clear prose, the author's style is straightforward, with some humor added. Perhaps most surprising is the conclusion, for which the clues along the way are few and far between, so that when revealed it comes as a complete surprise.

Recommended.

The Nightmare
Lars Kepler
Translated by Laura A. Wideburg
Sarah Crichton Books
c/o Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 W. 18th St., NY, NY 10011
9780374115333, $27.00, www.amazon.com

It must be somewhat of a nightmare for an author to sit down and contemplate how to create a follow-up novel to one as successful as The Hypnotist. But that is exactly what faced the team writing under the nom de plume Lars Kepler. So they wrote "The Nightmare," in which they again feature the Finnish-born protagonist, Swedish Detective Inspector Joona Linna.

The novel is not only a fast-paced procedural, but an action-filled suspense story. The plot centers on the corruption of the system by the extreme profitability of selling arms and ammunition to troubled nations and warring factions. The story begins when Linna investigates the strange death of the director responsible for allowing Swedish exports of armaments.

A wide assortment of characters is portrayed vividly, with a truly evil mastermind behind the murders, kidnappings and crimes keeping Linna and his police counterparts hopping. It is a riveting story, with an intensity forcing the reader to continue turning the nearly 500 pages. Written with passion, it is a book which is highly recommended.

An American Spy
Olen Steinhauer
Minotaur Books
c/o St. Martin's Press
175 Fifth Ave., NYC 10010
9780312622909, $14.99, www.amazon.com

This final novel in the trilogy picks up after the slaughter, in the previous novel, of 33 "tourists" engineered by the Chinese spymaster, Xin Zhu, head of the Expedition Agency of the Sixth Bureau of the Ministry of State Security, setting the stage for a complicated plot in which Milo Weaver, one of the few surviving "Tourists," is a reluctant participant. The ensuing events are like a chess match played blindfolded.

The Tourists department of the CIA is shut down in the aftermath of the slaughters, and its chief of six months, Alan Drumond, and Milo are unemployed and seeking jobs. But Alan can't let go and comes up with a scheme to "get" Xin Zhu and revenge what has happened. This sets off a chain of events causing each participant to make moves and countermoves without really knowing what the game really is all about. Nor does the reader.

All in all, the trilogy is a wonderful work, and this novel caps the previous two by being even better-plotted and -written. The characterizations are marvelous and the unexpected twists in the plots sometimes ingenious. The insights into the way the Chinese Republic is governed, and the minds and machinations of its officials, is worth every struggle the reader has with the myriad number of names and the devious plotting of the principals. By all means go out and get a copy and read this fine work.

Highly recommended.

The Paris Deadline
Max Byrd
Turner Publishing Company
200 - 4th Avenue North, Suite 950
Nashville, TN 37219
9781618580122, $27.95, www.turnerpublishing.com

If you're a glutton for detail, this novel probably will fulfill your every desire. Possibly every street and alley in Paris seems to be named, and the author has so deeply researched the background that the facts will overwhelm you. Not that this is a bad thing, it's just, sometimes, too much to absorb. Yet is an absorbing mystery in which Toby Keats (no relation to the poet), a rewrite man on the Paris Herald owned by Col. McCormick encounters a bit of history in the mid-1920s.

It begins when Toby and his co-worker, Waverly Root, are summoned to the Hotel Ritz suite of the colonel's mother. She shows them a mechanical duck, an automate, which moves its wings, ingests and defecates, delivered to her in error instead of two porcelain parrots. She tells them to return it to a Left Bank shop and retrieve what she bought. The shop is closed and this sets the stage for a long and complicated plot in which others attempt to obtain possession of the duck.

The novel is sprinkled with some real persons, such as William Shirer at the start of his career. And, of course, there are endless details about Jacques de Vaucanson, creator of the duck, as well as the Bleeding Man and the Writing Boy, as well as the silk loom, automates and tunneling under battlefields during World War I. The reading, as a result, is slow and, at times, tedious. Nevertheless, its is a well-told tale and, perhaps, worth the effort to plow through to the end.

Hellbox
Bill Pronzini
Forge
c/o Tor-Forge
175 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10010
9780765325655, $24.99, www.tor-forge.com

This novel, the latest in a long list in the Nameless Detective series, finds the protagonist with a name, Bill, along with his wife Kerry, in the foothills of the Sierras looking for a vacation home. Reference is made to an earlier entry in the series when Bill was chained to a wall and kept captive for three months. In the current book, Kerry is kidnapped by a completely unappealing character named Pete Balfour and kept bound and locked up in a shed while Bill, with the help of his employee Runyon, searches frantically for her.

It is an uncomplicated plot, unlike other novels in the series which are pretty much basic police procedurals. There is little character development, although we get a good look into Bill's psyche and his emotional attachment to Kerry. As far as the other major character, Balfour, he appears as just a wooden portrait, and any description of him as a personality is merely to provide information that he's just an evil person.

Readers have become accustomed to hard-boiled detective stories, with mysteries that are to be solved by hard slogging, research and deep undercover work by Nameless and his team. Obviously, "Hellbox" is an exception, although the intensity of the writing remains at the same high level of the author's previous efforts. But it just ain't the same, even though it is a fairly good read, and one can recommend it on that basis.

Judgment Call
J.A. Jance
William Morrow
c/o HarperCollins
10 E. 53rd St., NY, NY 10022
9780061731167, $25.99, www.harpercollins.com

The latest novel in the Joanna Brady series is basically a step-by-step police procedural, although there is some material on her family background as a sub-plot. It basically revolves around the murder of a high school principal, whose body is found by Sheriff Brady's teenage daughter who then, perhaps thoughtlessly, takes a picture with her phone and sends it to a friend. The photo then finds it way onto Facebook and the web, complicating the investigation.

As a result, Joanna's efforts are made more difficult by the gossip and goings-on among the students, especially those who had run into disciplinary situations at the school. Not to mention the various inhabitants of Bisbee, Arizona, including her mother. And there are plenty of characters, perhaps a few too many.

In any event, this is another well-written, excellently plotted suspense novel in keeping with the high standards of its 14 predecessors. Recommended.

The Hanging
Wendy Hornsby
Perseverance Press
c/o Daniel & Daniel
P.O. Box 2790, McKinleyville, CA 05519
9781564745262, $15.95, www.danielpublishing.com

The eighth Maggie MacGowen Mystery finds our protagonist in a funk. She's still depressed after the death of her homicide detective husband, Mike, less than a year ago. Then the investigative filmmaker learns that her TV series is being cancelled by the network. At loose ends, until she finds her next gig, she accepts a one-semester contract at a local community college to teach a few film editing courses.

Her young friend Sly, who Maggie and Mike rescued from the streets as a nine-year-old and who attends the school, has won a contest to supply an art object to be permanently displayed in the entrance of a newly constructed administration building. However, the president informs Sly it will only be on exhibit for a year, when it will be replaced, setting off Sly's temper in his disappointment. But Maggie gets others on the faculty to meet with the president, who is persuaded to reverse himself. Shortly afterward, the president is found hanging from a chain at the entrance ceiling from which Sly's art sculpture is to be hung.

From this point, the plot moves smoothly ahead, with Maggie, of course, uncovering background information to help solve the murder as well as other possible crimes. The story develops slowly and surely, with excellent character development and smooth writing and a credible conclusion.

Recommended.

Creole Belle
James Lee Burke
Simon & Schuster
1230 Sixth Ave., NY, NY 10020
9781451643138, $27.99, www.simonandschuster.com

The latest adventures of Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell read like a massive morality play in 500-plus pages. The series tales place in southern Louisiana, the bayou country and New Orleans, with all the historic corruption derived from the Civil War and slavery, the oil industry, prostitution and other societal evils. Dave and Clete are supposed to represent the good fighting the sleaziness.

In the previous entry in the series, the duo suffered near death in a bayou shootout, and we now find Dave in a New Orleans recovery facility in a morphine-induced haze where he receives a midnight visit from Tee Jolie Mellon, a creole barroom singer who leaves him an i-pod filled with music, including three songs she sings and which apparently only he can hear. Raising doubts that the visit was in fact real. Meanwhile, Clete is confronted by two goons claiming they hold a marker for a debt he believes was paid off many years before. To further complicate his life, Clete witnesses his illegitimate daughter murder one of the goons. Then Tee Jolie's young sister washes up on the Gulf Coast in a block of ice. An oil well blow-off fouling the environment adds to the corruption endemic to their world.

To say the very least, the plot is a highly complicated series of inter-related components weaved into a long and somewhat tiring saga. The author has stretched his formidable abilities to include wide-ranging comments on a variety of subjects, some poignant, others evocative. But always clear and concise. One has to question the violence performed by Dave and Clete in their quest for justice. Is it excessive and, perhaps, unwarranted? But certainly it is in character, and the novel is recommended.

Not Dead Yet
Peter James
Minotaur
c/o St. Martin's Press
175 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10010
9780312642846, $25.99, www.stmartins.com

This is a tale of obsession, in all its infinite variety and manifestations, some more lethal than others but mostly just a matter of degree, with neither gender being excluded from its clutches. There are enough seriously disturbed characters here to populate several novels, in a few different story lines.

The main plot deals with the discovery of an unidentifiable body whose headless, armless and legless torso is discovered on a chicken farm in East Sussex. As if that isn't enough, the area is faced with an at once wonderful and problematic event: a major American superstar [think Lady Gaga, in fact the fictional counterpart is named Gaia] is about to arrive from Los Angeles, with her entourage and film crew, to Brighton, England, the city where she was born, to star in a film which will chronicle the love affair between King George the Fourth and his mistress Maria Fitzherbert. Needless to say, her hordes of obsessed fans converge on the city as well.

A second story line revolves around another obsessive, the target of this one none other than DS Roy Grace, in charge of the Major Crime Branch of Sussex CID. But a resolution, if any, of that one awaits a successive novel, I suspect. The personal lives of Grace and of Glenn Branson, to whom Grace is a mentor, get a lot of the focus in this, the eighth series entry, as Grace's fiancee, Cleo, is in her last month of pregnancy, and Branson, who has become a "long-stay lodger" in Grace's house since the latter moved in with Cleo, is facing child custody problems in the aftermath of his now-dead "marriage-from-hell."

Cavil: It bothered me when, as happened frequently, the p.o.v. jumped around, sometimes without identifying the person from whose point of view the chapter was being told. I assume this was intentional, but it was somewhat disconcerting. As well, I felt that perhaps the first two-thirds of the book was somewhat bloated and repetitive, causing this reader's attention to wander, a first for any of this author's books. No wandering attention in the approximately last third of the book, I hasten to add, when the plot lines start to come together with more than one climactic scene, with a finish you'll never see coming. All in all, it is recommended.

An Unmarked Grave
Charles Todd
William Morrow
c/o HarperCollins
10 E. 53rd St., NY, NY 10022
9780062015723, $24.99, www.harpercollins.com

The Bess Crawford series, in which this is the latest entry, takes place during World War I, with Bess serving as a nurse in France, but usually getting involved in all sorts of crimes, including murder. This time, deaths result not only as a result of the conflict, but the Spanish influenza epidemic and at least four murders, including that of a major who served with her father, the Colonel sahib, in India. Unfortunately, the major had no identification and was buried in an unmarked grave before Bess could supply his name. But first, she falls ill with the flu and is returned to England to recover. And it's quite possible that Bess saw the murderer, placing her in jeopardy.

The rest of the book finds Bess, after recovering from her illness, shuttling back to the front and then returning to England in search of the killer. Of course, there are the Colonel's mysterious capabilities and super-human contacts within the British establishment which are never disclosed, as well as the abilities of his sergeant-major, Simon Brandon, which permeate the novel, as well as Bess always finding just the right help, be it a person, automobile or telephone, just in the nick of time to make the reader scratch his or her head. And too often, coincidences arise along the way.

Nevertheless, as in previous books in the series, the battlefield descriptions, the medical efforts to save the wounded and the effects of the conflict on both military and civilians are excellent. Perhaps the plotting is over-developed, but that is typical of this mother-son writing team, which pays great attention to detail. Characters are well-drawn but the conclusion is sort of forced. Over all, though, the novel reads well, and is recommended.

Theodore Feit
Reviewer


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