in a garden of spare monohues converts color into shape. The sense of
colorness is absent. A species of white rhododendron is cross-bred specifically
for this effect. The fact that all this planned purpose is set off to the side
in a raked stoned garden conveys an unmistakable message: the non-color of
Illumination turns the sparrowy hues of being and meaning and figure and wish
into not the hues of being, but the tints of transition. Seeing what is there is
believing what is not: there is no such thing as casual.
All this
contemplative void-worship is radically reversed when the book comes to the
courtyard gardens in the townhouses of well-off merchants. Merchants are rarely
attracted to the minimal in any society. In their gardens is not the shunning of
delusion but the embrace of decorativeness. Tasteful, to be sure, but the effect
is many elements vying with each other for each its share of your attention
span. Townhouse gardens seek not to edify or catapult into contemplation, but to
relax and calm. They transport the intimate beauties of nature into the heart of
the home, and thus so the purpose goes into the dweller. Instead of karuna
action taken to diminish the suffering of others that is the garden of the
temple, the residential garden is ohana sharing undertaken to maximize the
articulation of self.
And it is hard to fault the merchants for their
pride. With wealth came the best of Japan's arts ikebana, scrolls, ceramics,
tatami, bamboo furnishing, shoji, lacquered wood, ink brushes, all those
delicious crafts that make the country the subject of so many lovely picture
books. Merchants do not relinquish with their gardens, they embrace. You begin
to see utility objects converted into decor objects, specifically to be not used
water basins, bamboo cups, and, for the first time, tori or stone lanterns.
Costly steppingstones (often in locations where they can't be stepped on) made
of rock imported from distant quarries take the place of the natural indigenous
rocks found in temple gardens. Size or rather oversize for effect becomes a
preoccupation, the way the well-to-do convey substance with overimage pretty
much all over the world (ever see a small luxury car?).
This usually
happens with tori lanterns, which sometimes are overdimensioned to twice the
size needed for a well-proportioned garden. Why? The significance of the stone
lantern is its placement. Where it stands is a balance point between the thicket
of the flower and plant and stone and the sky. The 'eye' of the lantern ends the
garden and begins the sky. Oversizing it draws attention to the lantern itself
rather than the plane at which it divides garden from sky. The intent can only
be drawing attention to an object for the object's sake, which then in turn
reflects on the assets of the owner. It is significant that tori do not occur in
the temple and shrine gardens in the book, being inimical to the temple garden's
point.
Domestic devotion usually shows up as ornamentation over
abstraction. In townhouse gardens this occurs in juxtapositions of the best of
Japan's art forms ikebana flower arrangements, tansu, painted folding screens,
calligraphy on scrolls adjacent to the tsuboniwa. In a temple garden there must
be no distraction from the garden itself. It is hard to escape the notion that
in Japan devotionalism occurs as ornament of surface. There is a shift in
attention from emptiness and space to detail and volume. Absence of significance
is not the goal, but rather significance of significance.
Not to say that
a townhouse garden can't simplify. In one garden, a single stone lantern amid
seven large bamboos instantly achieves the irreducible. It is like seeking the
perfect poem by arranging seven words into a shape. The artist Keinen Imao
designed his personal garden using the traditional elements stone lantern, water
basin with bamboo cup for washing the hands, carefully arranged stones,
kutsunugi stone (a special shape from a handful of quarries all over Japan) to
sit on while removing footwear, and two small trees. None of this is remarkable
until the sun shines down through the leaves of the trees, creating a play of
leaf- and twig-shaped shadows on the ground. To Keinen Imao, the garden was
these shadows, not the other objects in view.
Then search his name on the
Web and you will see why. He all but lived among the leaves. (See especially
http://www.artelino.com/archive/art_object.asp?evt=2&rel=11 and
http://info.partner.de/kunden/schwaegr.nsf/nav/doc/doster-doc10.htm.
Damp
scented air, zephyr, dust of snow, shaft of light: These are the merchant
garden's spiritual refreshment amid the crowded, hyperbolic ekistics of a city,
the ekistics of too much thing and too little time. Morning is brief. Evening is
brief. Light is brief. But a tsuboniwa is not brief, even though any one gaze
may last for only a few moments. It is not brief because it is not of
time.
Landscapes for Small Spaces is a masterwork. Consider the physical
production before even opening the book. It has overwide jacket flaps, reaching
almost to the gutter; a generous expanse of space on which the jacket flap text
floats gracefully. Most dust jacket flaps cram the text so tightly you can't
help but think of life in a telephone booth. Once inside, although there is no
further mention than a small box on the copyright page, the book is printed in
something called Diamond Screening, 'a technology that enables the reproduction
of color artwork and photography which far surpasses the quality achieved by
traditional printing methods.' Indeed so: the wood floors of the Honen'in Temple
on pp. 32 33 have been walkworn and waxed to such blackness that the very few
reflections coming off them are a printer's nightmare: large expanses of
incrementally blending blacks and dark grays are broken by equal expanses of
brilliantly whitewashed walls. Yet even at the far end of the halls in this
double-page spread you can see undulations in the boards that perhaps even the
eye might not notice. There are deep blacks and there are deeper blacks, and
this printing process shows them all.
There are less obvious touches,
too, such as the ability of a large-format camera (apparently a 4' x 5' view
camera in some shots) to render images sharper than the same scene seems to the
eye.
Kodansha produces books that will still have something to say a
century from now, and then, as now, will say it well. However, this book lacks
an important necessity: a bibliography. Here is a brief starter biblio if you
want to pursue this subject a bit more:
Shigemori Kanto. The Japanese
Courtyard Garden. New York: Apollo Books (out of print but used to be carried by
Weatherhill), ISBN: 0-3175-4981-2.
Yoshikawa Isao. Japanese Gardening in
Small Spaces. Tokyo: JOIE/Japan Publications, 1997, ISBN:
0870409778
Patricia Jonas (Editor), Japanese-Inspired Gardens. Brooklyn
Botanic Garden, 2001, ISBN: 1889538205
Isao Yoshikawa. Japanese Gardening
in Small Spaces. Japan Publications, 1997, ISBN: 0870409778
You can also
check Amazon.com for current books and alibris.com for out-of-print
titles.
Dana De Zoysa
Reviewer
Sullivan's Bookshelf
A New Christianity For A New World: Why
Traditional Faith Is Dying & How A New Faith Is Being Born
John Shelby
Spong
Harper: San Francisco
353 Sacramento Street, #500, San Francisco, CA
94111-3653
ISBN # 0060670843(cloth edition), 276 pages/indexed, $24.00,
1-800-272-7737
Retired Episcopal Bishop Spong has written his most
controversial book ever. Herein he proposes a new Christian religion. It's
Christianity minus a theistic God. Yet this author's proposed creed holds "that
God could no longer be defined personally as a being, but must be approached
nonpersonally as the Ground of All being."
Christians are here on earth,
adds the retired Bishop, to be all that they can be{not dissimilar from a recent
U.S. Army TV commercial}. And that God is experienced as Life.
Spong also
allows for Jesus Christ to be a part of this new religion. However, he, too,
must now be accepted as nontheistic: no Bible miracle stories, no atonement for
our sins death, no baptism, no virgin birth, no Trinity, no Resurrection, etc.
In short, it's a more human Christ, though still divine and yet the pathway to
God.
With the new creed, one could still be called a Christian. Spong
sees it as the method toward knowing God. Yet the author further believes that
all creeds come to the same God as does the new Christianity.
The author
doesn't take credit for the theistic God's demise. That goes back to such people
as the philosopher Nietzche who espoused that God was dead. But even then many
knew that the supernatural acts accredited to God would no longer happen:
smiting one's enemies on the field of battle, changing weather for a picnic,
defeating the opposing football or baseball teams, and on and on. The time for
that has passed some said. Others, including Spong, say those days never were.
All was nothing but myth.
With the departure of that mythological,
security-blanket God, Spong believes we're now witnessing individuals panicking
in the form of killing others at such places as Columbine High School, the
attack on the Trade Towers in New York City, and all the workplace shootings.
The retired Bishop also believes that the shrinking memberships in mainline
churches and the growing members in fundamentalist sects are nothing more than
frightened people looking for safety in churches that have hard and fast beliefs
in a theistic God.
The author writes, "The work of the ecclesia {Spong's
name for the church membership in his new Christianity} of the future is to
expand the arena of life, to enhance the capacity to love, and to develop in
every person the courage to be, for these are the marks of God's realm, the God
who is beyond the definition of theism. These things are also pointers to a
universality of faith and practice that will recognize no boundary between
Christian and non-Christian, Protestant and Catholic, true believer and heretic,
conservative and liberal, educated and illiterate, male and female, Caucasion
and person of color, homosexual and heterosexual, for all are creatures in whom
the source of life, the source of love, and the Ground of Being find
expression."
This book is an outgrowth of the William Belden Noble
lectures that Bishop Spong delivered at Harvard. Most of the author's previous
books, of which there are many, have been dramatic, but this one is truly
radical. It is highly recommended reading, regardless of religious orientation
or the lack thereof.
Mapping Human History: Discovering The Past Through
Our Genes
Steve Olson
Houghlin Mifflin Company
ISBN # 06l809l572, 292
pages/indexed, $25.00,
Olson writes of tracing humans' ancestors through
use of their mitochrondial DNA, inherited only from the mother, and the Y
Chromosome, inherited from the father. Through use of these genetic tools,
scientists have traced everyone alive today back to one mother, Eve so to speak,
and one father, Adam, so-called. They likely didn't mate with each other. In any
case, this man and this woman lived in Africa where all modern humans, homo
sapiens, arose. In short, this author makes a convincing case for all humans
being related, regardless of physical features or color of skin.
The
concept of race, argues this writer, is nonexistent, making racism baseless. In
fact, the whole book is a subtle polemic against the erstwhile idea of race.
Olson's thoughts on this subject are reminiscent of Stephen Jay Gould's. The now
deceased, world-famous, paleoanthropologist and Darwinian, said, with
substantial scientific proof to back himself up, that anyone who says there are
different races in this world is just plain wrong-headed.
Human ancestry
in all parts of the globe is tackled in this tome. Olson shows how man and
womankind have migrated out of Africa, on more than one occasion, to populate
various parts of the earth. These human migrations were prompted by growing
populations, changing weather and environment, the development of agriculture,
and other dynamic reasons.
Through the whole volume that is intriguing
reading, perhaps the final chapter, on Hawaii and its native people, is
illustrative. After Captain Cook arrived there in l778, Hawaiians, generous and
sharing to a faul, were never the same again. Today, half the islanders are of
mixed ancestry.
Olson concludes with, "I began this book by calling
attention to the different appearances of human beings. I conclude it now by
calling attention to the opposite. Throughout human history, groups have
wondered how they are related to one another. The study of genetics has now
revealed that we are all linked: the Bushmen hunting antelope, the mixed-race
people of South Africa, the African Americans descended from slaves, the
Samaritans on their mountain stronghold, the Jewish populations scattered around
the world, the Han Chinese a billion strong, the descendants of European
settlers who colonised the New World, the Native Hawaiians who look to a
cherished past. We are members of a single human family, the products of genetic
necessity and chance, borne ceaselessly into an unknown future."
SHAPING
THE FUTURE and BIOTECHNOLOGY were also written by Steve Olson, who has had
articles published in Science and Atlantic Monthly magazines. Once employed by
the White House Office of Science and Technology, he was worked for the National
Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Genomic Research,
too.
Recommended!
Jim Sullivan
Reviewer
Gorden's Bookshelf
Blood Work
Michael Connelly
Warner
Books, Inc.
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN:
0446602620, $7.50, paperback, October 1998, 498 pages
Connelly has a
simple open writing style that disappears quickly behind the storyline. He is a
storyteller first and a writer second. With detective mysteries and most other
genre novels, the best writing is when you lose the printed words and just
remember the story. Connelly succeeds in this task with Blood
Work.
McCaleb is an ex-FBI profiler who is about to start his third month
since a heart transplant surgery. A woman comes aboard his boat and his life
changes. Graciela Rivers tells him he has her sister's heart. She asks him to
find her sister's murderer. McCaleb's own heart gave out when he became too
attached to the victims and survivors of the killers he profiled for the FBI.
This time his new heart tells him he has to follow death again to find the
killer. McCaleb follows a twisted web of clues left by the killer that only he
can see and the local police have missed. The killer has decided to play a game
with the wounded McCaleb with McCaleb's life or living death the ultimate
prize.
Blood Work is a well paced and aptly named murder mystery. For a
few readers, the mystery unfolds early but the pace of the story will keep them
happy. For the others, Connelly lays out the clues and with satisfying
efficiency works them out. 'Blood Work' is a solid well-told detective story
that holds its own with the best in the genre.
Icarus
Russel
Andrews
Pocket Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
10020
ISBN: 0743451562, $7.99, mass-market edition, July 2002, 547
pages
Andrews starts his story with a slow methodical style. Even the
horrific murder at the beginning of the story seems sanitized by the way Andrews
holds the characters away from the readers. At the halfway point, Andrews finds
his pacing and the story explodes into a solid psychological thriller and
mystery.
'Icarus' is a story about Jack Keller. At ten, he sees his
mother thrown out the window by an insane man. Despite the trauma, Jack grows up
to become a well balanced man with only a reasonable fear of heights. He marries
the girl of his dreams. Middle-age looks both normal and beautiful for him until
insanity and murder stalk the people around him. Every step he takes, every clue
he follows ends in death. And every death seems linked to the murder of Jack's
mother. Insanity, secrets, and murder walk hand-in-hand through to the last few
pages of the book.
The explosive second half of 'Icarus' holds up to
expectations. It pulls the okay, but slow, story into a breakneck mystery.
Icarus is a satisfying thriller filled with the dark addictions of humanity. The
obsessions that twist and bend are the mystery in this thriller. There is
nothing new in 'Icarus' but the story trickles out just enough clues so the
mystery holds until the end. In spite of the slow start, 'Icarus' is one of the
better thriller/mysteries.
A Martian Odyssey & Other Classic Science
Fiction Stories
Stanley G. Weinbaum, Jean Marie Stine, editor
Renaissance
E Books
P.O. Box 494, Clemmons, North Carolina 27012
ISBN: 1588731219,
$4.00, electronic download, Copyright 2002, 187 pages,
www.renebooks.com
Stanley G. Weinbaum is one of the best science fiction
writers in the twentieth century. For an average SF reader of today, Weinbaum's
science and style seem a little dated but the stories are interesting and well
written. What makes Weinbuam one of the best is that he was the first. He was
the first to create truly alien creatures and environments and not just use a
re-setting of earthly creatures in otherworldly roles. Weinbaum's writings span
only two years, 1934 through 1935. He died in '35 from cancer. His illness might
be why there is an emphasis on medicine with his stories. But the cancer never
touched the brilliance of his writings.
'A Martian Odyssey,' 'Valley of
Dreams,' and 'Tidal Moon' show Weinbaum's ability to create aliens and alien
environments. E.E. Doc. Smith's 'Lensman' series is arguably the best SF series
ever written. Without Weinbaum's unique creations, it is hard to imagine how
Smith's writings would have changed but they would have. Smith borrowed heavily
from the inspiration of the Martian Tweel and Ganymede's
Cree.
'Pygmalion's Spectacles' is an easy romp into the mind and virtual
reality. Again, you can see the effect in the later writings of Theodore
Sturgeon and Ray Bradbury.
'The Circle of Zero' delves into time travel
through the mind. 'Zero' adds the concept of multiple timelines to time travel
which was followed up so well by Heinlein and even James P. Hogan.
'The
Dictator' is a common post World War II story that was written before World War
II started. Because the War overshadowed so many of the SF writings in the later
twentieth century, it is harder to see Weinbaum's influence but it is
there.
These six short stories do what great storytelling always does.
They make the reader think and inspire others to explore farther. Anyone who
claims to like science fiction or science needs to read these stories at least
once.
S.A. Gorden,
Reviewer
www.paulbunyan.net/users/gsirvio/content.html
Sandra's Bookshelf
Mind To Mind
Rene Warcollier
Hampton
Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge Road, Charlottesville, VA
22902
ISBN: 1-57174-311-1 Soft Cover. 95 pp. $14.95, www.hrpub.com
1-800-766-8009
Hampton Roads Publishing Company has begun to reissue
classical metaphysical texts in their new series, Studies in
Consciousness/Russell Targ Editions. Mind To Mind, originally written by
telepathy researcher Rene Warcollier, is one of the first classics chosen for
the series.
Ingo Swann has written a new preface for this edition, noting
that while Warcollier's 1948 book is still valid, "it is useful to partially
reset Warcollier's seminal work into a larger, and now more inclusive,
historical overview." For one thing, little was known in Warcollier's time about
psychic phenomena. Additionally, Warcollier's pioneering research has withstood
the test of time.
Contemporary physicist and psychic researcher Russell
Targ, along with Jane Katra, Ph.D., wrote an interpretive introduction, which
describes current investigations into remote viewing, distant healing, prayer,
and self inquiry. They "conclude that the scientific and spiritual implications
of psychic abilities are evident in the continually unfolding mystery of the
space-time in which we live."
The remainder of the book details
Warcollier's meticulous experiments, which provided "impressive scientific
evidence for the untapped power of human consciousness." He was a chemical
engineer, who became interested in telepathy after studying psychology. He
sought to answer questions about what information is actually transmitted during
telepathy, how it's transmitted, and its relation to the unconscious. He
eventually collaborated with researchers worldwide, including the United
States.
Mind To Mind is an excellent resource for all readers interested
in understanding the foundation and background of research into telepathic
phenomena and human consciousness.
The Healthy Living Space
Richard
Leviton
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge Road,
Charlottesville, VA 22902
ISBN: 1-57174-209-3 Soft Cover $18.95,
www.hrpub.com 1-800-766-8009
Far more common household and personal care
products contain toxic substances than many of us realize. Those toxins affect
our bodies and may lead to serious illness. At the least, they can reduce the
quality of life by making us feel less than vibrant and healthy.
Richard
Leviton is a health journalist and author with more than twenty-five years
experience. The Healthy Living Space is his eighth book.
In it, he offers
"70 practical steps on how to use safe, proven, nontoxic, self-care methods
drawn from the fields of natural and alternative medicine." Leviton not only
explains how to detoxify, he also explains why. He also emphasizes that it's
important to detoxify both home and body, as the poisons accumulated in both can
make you sick.
He begins with an eye-opening inventory of substances most
of us are exposed to every day. He then describes some of the health symptoms
people suffer. Many of these symptoms can be vague or subtle, leading
health-care professionals to either mis- diagnose or label sufferers as
hypochondriacs. Instead they need to be treated as early-warning signals of what
may become severe health problems.
Leviton says "the truth is that we are
being slowly poisoned, because although the toxins are potent, we are rarely
exposed to a lethal or even sub- lethal, but dangerous, dose. We are instead
routinely exposed to very small doses of many toxic chemicals, which together
overwhelm our body's natural detoxification system." He says the key is to
recognize that toxicity is occurring so slowly that most of us don't realize it
until too late.
Because few of us can entirely avoid all toxic
substances, Leviton explains how we can reduce our exposure, while at the same
time strengthening our body's ability to resist damage from the elements we are
exposed to. He includes chapters on emotional and spiritual detoxification as
well as extensive information on physical detoxification. The chapters on
detoxifying homes describe how to remove common pollutants, as well as utilize
the more esoteric techniques like feng shui.
Whether we realize it or
not, all of us know what it feels like to live in a toxic environment. The
Healthy Living Space provides readers with the practical information and tools
they need to create healthy bodies and homes.
Moments Of Grace
Neale
Donald Walsch
Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge
Road, Charlottesville, VA 22902
ISBN: 1-57174-303-0 Hard Cover. 201 pp.
$22.95, www.hrpub.com 1-800-766-8009
Known world-wide for the
Conversations with God trilogy, Neale Donald Walsch is back with his eighteenth
book, Moments Of Grace. Walsch says moments of grace occur "when God intervenes
in our lives in very real, very direct, and very visible ways." The intervention
usually results in individuals changing the course of their lives. His book is
filled with real-life accounts of such moments.
Walsch asked people who'd
had direct, life- changing experiences with God to contact him. He received an
outpouring of stories, from which he selected more than twenty to offer as proof
of God's existence. Each story is interwoven with commentaries and reflections
based on the rich material in his earlier books. He says that his experiences
and those of the people who've sent stories to him teaches us "that God talks to
all of us, all of the time."
Walsch emphasizes that his purpose is not in
forcing anyone to believe a particular thing, but rather to simply encourage
people to share their experiences and stories. His goal is to have people "tell
each other our innermost truth about God, about ourselves, about spirituality,
about life, and about all the higher callings of life." In this way, we can
answer for ourselves the important questions about our relationships to the
Divine and to each other. He says we don't know far more than we do know, and
it's only through openness and the sharing of our experiences that we can find
answers that many of us seek.
Miracles occur every day in every life.
Moments Of Grace is designed to help individuals discover those miracles in
their own lives. Readers will find themselves accepting the challenge of
increasing their "openness to new ideas, to new possibilities, and to new ways
of understanding each other and God--and God's many gifts."
Human
Personality And Its Survival Of Bodily Death
F.W.H. Myers
Hampton Roads
Publishing Company, Inc.
1125 Stoney Ridge Road, Charlottesville, VA
22902
ISBN: 1-57174-238-7 Soft Cover. 352 pp. $16.95, www.hrpub.com
1-800-766-8009
In the 1890's, when F.W.H. Myers wrote Human Personality
And Its Survival Of Bodily Death, people didn't believe they necessarily had
souls, much less that the soul would survive their death. After Myers
experienced communication with his deceased wife, he set out to prove his
contemporaries wrong.
Myers was a scholar who became a scientist when he
began investigating paranormal phenomena. He conducted research and experiments
in a variety of fields, including personality disintegration, genius, sleep,
hypnosis, and trances. His goal was to "break down that artificial wall between
science and superstition." He believed that questions of the soul should be
subjected to the same open mind and critical analysis used in other scientific
inquiries.
His landmark investigations set the standards for subsequent
research into human consciousness. In his interpretive introduction to the book,
Jeffrey Mishlove says that Myers's "classic synthesis of nineteenth century
field research [is regarded] as the most important single work in the history of
psychical research." He adds that it is still "fresh, vigorous, and
contemporary."
Like many of the classic metaphysical texts, Myers's book
has been out of print for years. Hampton Roads Publishing Company has begun to
reissue the classical texts in their new series, Studies in
Consciousness/Russell Targ Editions. Their current edition of Myers's book is an
abridgement of the original, "prepared to make its major content more readily
accessible to the modern reader."
Human Personality And Its Survival Of
Bodily Death documents Myers's extensive experiments and conclusions that
personality does, in fact, continue after death. Readers will discover that he
achieved his goal of proving that the human personality is not limited to
material life.
Mystics, Masters, Saints, And Sages: Stories Of
Enlightenment
Robert Ullman and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman
Conari
Press
2550 Ninth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
ISBN: 1-57324-507-0 Soft
Cover. 286 pp. $16.95, www.conari.com 1-800-685-9595
Robert Ullman and
Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman are naturopathic and homeopathic physicians who have
also studied with numerous spiritual teachers. Mystics, Masters, Saints, And
Sages: Stories Of Enlightenment is their seventh book, in which their "intent is
to capture the experience of enlightenment as clearly and succinctly as
possible."
While recognizing that each individual's experience will be
unique, the Ullmans believe that the stories of others will serve as models or
signposts for those who are still seeking. They emphasize that "no one religion,
country, socioeconomic class, or gender has laid special claim to
enlightenment." They've chosen a diverse collection of stories, ranging from
Buddha to St. Catherine of Siena to Suzanne Segal. A total of thirty-three
stories are told.
Each story focuses on the moment of transformation in
each individual's life. The Ullmans include a brief informational essay,
describing the culture and times the individual lived in and his or her
teachings. The enlightenment stories themselves are in the words of the masters
themselves whenever possible; or from those closest to them.
An extensive
bibliography provides a variety of sources for readers wishing to delve further
into the lives and times of the individuals.
Although every enlightenment
experience is different, the authors describe the common elements they
discovered. These include interconnectedness and ego transcendence, timelessness
and spaciousness, acceptance, beyond pleasure and pain, clarity, and shattering
of preconceived notions.
In his foreword, His Holiness The Dalai Lama
says "each human being has an equal opportunity to attain wisdom, happiness, and
enlightenment by cultivating a correct motivation--a sincere aspiration to
benefit all sentient beings--and engaging in diligent practice." He adds that
Mystics, Masters, Saints, And Sages "is a valuable, inspiring book." It belongs
in the library of all readers seeking spiritual insight.
Nothing Left
Unsaid: Words To Help You And Your Loved Ones Through The Hardest Times
Carol
Orsborn
Conari Press
2550 Ninth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
ISBN:
1-57324-565-8. Hard Cover. 129 pp. $15.95, www.conari.com 1-800-685
9595
Carol Orsborn wrote Nothing Left Unsaid: Words To Help You And Your
Loved Ones Through The Hardest Times to help people nurture their relationships
while there is still time. She "focuses on the experience of being with someone
who is sick or dying, and encourages the reader to move to a new level of
connection and relationship with the one they love." Orsborn wrote it following
her own experience with a personal health crisis and after a vigil with her
critically-ill father.
A master teacher and theologian, Orsborn has
written ten other books applying spiritual philosophy to the challenges of
life.
She begins with a collection of inspirational readings, prayers,
and affirmations from a variety of cultures and traditions. Brief essays from
her personal experiences follow each of these, along with suggestions as to how
individuals may incorporate them in their own lives.
Following that is a
section of "Rituals for Healing and Resolution." Orsborn includes several
techniques for releasing negative feelings such as guilt and grief. She also
describes a forgiveness meditation and several methods of effective
communication.
The final section is designed to help with introspection.
It contains questions which the individual may use for journaling, or to
initiate conversations with loved ones.
Orsborn's desire is that her
words will "help you to grow your love and minimize your regret, come what may."
In Nothing Left Unsaid, she's provided a compassionate and inspirational guide
for anyone who is struggling with trying to find the right words to say at
difficult times.
The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices From Around The
World
Maggie Oman Shannon
Conari Press
2550 Ninth Street, Berkeley,
CA
ISBN: 1-57324-571-2 Soft Cover. 249 pp. $15.95, www.conari.com
1-800-685-9595
Prayer may take many forms and be for an infinite variety
of reasons. In The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices From Around The World, Maggie
Oman Shannon provides a "compendium of prayer practices with enough context to
acknowledge the cultural traditions behind them, while offering an invitation
for further exploration."
Oman Shannon is a spiritual director, and
founder of The New Story, an organization that helps people discover the deeper
purpose to their lives. She's also a writer and editor, with a previous
anthology of healing prayers to her credit.
Although many of us think of
being on our knees with hands folded in front of us as the way to pray,
practices as diverse as fasting, haiku, meditation, storytelling, and visual
arts can all be a way of prayer. Oman Shannon quotes Catherine of Siena with the
thought that "everything you do can be a prayer." What you physically do is of
less importance than your sacred intentions. She says that prayer can become the
"enfolding fabric in which we live our lives, and everything we do has the
potential to be prayerful."
She describes over fifty ways of offering
prayer. Each description details how that practice developed and how it has been
used throughout time. Then Oman Shannon provides suggestions of how each method
can be used in contemporary times, for contemporary difficulties. Each
description is finished with a section containing several suggestions as to how
individuals can explore that particular means of prayer to determine if it's
something they can use.
An extensive resource section is provided to
assist readers who want to investigate a particular practice in more
depth.
Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, has this to say in the
Foreword: "The Way We Pray offers us a treasury of integrating spiritual
practices [and] they all have the power to open us up to a deeper and more
generous reality." Readers will find the Oman Shannon has provided an invaluable
resource for discovering the power of prayer in the way best suited to meet
their needs.
Sandra I. Smith
Reviewer
Harold's Bookshelf
Kinoetics: Signs Of Conflict: Our Personal
Body Language
William Linson, M.D.
Kinoetics Publishing
PO Box 3057,
Ketchum, ID 83340
0970073909 $24.95, Pages: 215
Kinoetics: Signs Of
Conflict provides a unique and close examination of one specific aspect of body
language. While other books concentrate on such things as the way one crosses
their legs, leans forward, etc., "Kinoetics" concentrates on the meaning of
self-referential touch. What does it mean when we touch ourselves by placing our
hands over our face, pulling at the corner of the eye or corner of the mouth,
etc. The premise of the book is that "conflict typically has an associated
physical response, and it is often accompanied by self-referential touching...
which symbolically manifests what one is thinking and feeling". What does this
mean? When we are experiencing internal conflict we often make self-referential
actions, which reveal those internal conflicts. William Linson takes the reader
on a very detailed journey through self-referential touch and the specific
conflicts each of them symbolize. A fascinating read, I find myself using the
information regularly as I deal with others. Highly recommended.
Dr.
Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation
Olivia Judson
Metropolitan
Books
115 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011
0805063315 $24.00, Pages:
234 plus Notes, Bibliography and Index
Unable to read through the book in
one setting, I found myself desperately trying to find ways to get back to it as
soon as possible. Who would have thought that you could take the subject of
sexual reproduction and evolutionary biology and made it into such a thoroughly
entertaining read? The author chose an advice column format with letters
supposedly from crickets, stick bugs, stickleback fish and dozens of other
creatures asking advice about their sexual situation. Needless to say most of it
is fascinating and highly unnatural - for a human that is, but perfectly normal
for them. Some of the situations she describes are so bizarre as to be beyond
what one would expect from even the best science-fiction writers. Olivia Judson
is to be applauded for writing an educational book that is so thoroughly
entertaining that it does not seem like you are actually being taught in the
process. But you will learn and you will walk away with a completely different
view of nature and reproduction. I was so thoroughly fascinated with the book
that all I can say at this point is "Encore, encore".
Effective Business
And Nonfiction Writing, 2nd Edition
Jan Yager
Hannacroix Creek Books,
Inc.
1127 High Ridge Road, PMB 110, Stamford, CT 06905-1203
1889262331
$30.95, Pages: 176
No matter whether you need to write a business letter,
report, proposal, procedures manual, nonfiction book, or simple e-mail we all
write on a regular basis. Why not make your writing the best it can be? Why not
make it the most readable and easily understood writing that you can? This book
will help you to do just that. In Effective Business And Nonfiction Writing Jan
Yager shares her experience and knowledge gathered through years of teaching
writing at the collegiate level as well as writing several successful books. The
book is very thorough and includes information on evaluating your current skill
level, steps to effective business or nonfiction writing, overcoming writer's
block, style, getting published, time management and other areas. At the end of
each chapter you can further your knowledge in that area by utilizing the
exercises, references and additional resources listed there. Easy to read, easy
to understand, and well written using the same principles put forward in the
book it is a highly recommended read that is sure to improve anyone's
communication skills.
Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation
Guide To Secrets And Lies
Russ Kick (Editor), Richard Metzger
(Preface)
The Disinformation Company, Ltd.
163 Third Avenue, Suite 108,
New York, NY 10003
0971394202 $24.95, Pages: 287 plus 50 pages of
appendixes
Have you ever wondered if the media is telling you the
complete story? Have you ever wondered if there is another side to the stories
that is just plain not being told? Is it possible that everything you are being
taught is not necessarily true but is instead just the position that the
government, media or other group wants you to believe? If you have then you owe
it to yourself to read this book. Just a couple of examples from the book
include the current situation with Mad Cow disease in America, the fact that
violence involving young people is at it's lowest level in over 30 years
(despite the impression you get from the news), how French authorities kidnapped
a girl in California and took her to France. Other areas include nuclear safety,
globalization, serial killers, the Vatican Bank, Olympic Games, the Columbine
murders and many others. While at times the book seems like a series of articles
from a "conspiracy theory" group, it has the advantage of each article being
contributed by an authority in that field. The authorities include everything
from investigative journalists to researchers to commentators and academic
authorities. Each article includes well-documented evidence to backup all
claims. If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to learn the alternative
possibilities and explanations that are out there, most of which are at least as
plausible and sometimes more so than the "official" or "accepted" version. A
fascinating read that opens the mind, answers many questions and at times
creates more questions than it answers. Fun and irreverent, sometimes
politically left, sometimes politically right, it is a recommended
read.
Transformational Change
Thomas K. Wentz
Corporate Performance
Systems, Inc.
5001 Pine Creek Drive, Westerville, OH 43081
0966843509
$22.95, Pages: 265
Transformational Change addresses the problem of how
to deal with change when moving from a mass production oriented business to a
customer centered customized production business. One of the truly unique
perspectives of this book is that it discusses and details the process of such a
change. Many similar books effectively argue the need for change but then
provide no direction on how to make the change. Thomas Wentz' book provides
detailed discussion and processes for creating that complete transformation of
your business In the past most businesses were based on a mass production focus.
Success and management were evaluated on a numbers basis. How much has sales
increased? How many items were produced during this period last year? This
numbers orientation tends to cause people to work hard to meet the numbers as
their primary focus. In this scenario employees typically don't go beyond what
is expected of them. There is no motivation to create a unique world-class
organization. Add to that the fact that times have changed and customers now
require a solution or product that is customized to their specific needs. If you
can't provide a customized solution or product then they will simply go to a
competitor that can. Is this just another business direction change? Thomas
Wentz argues that it is more than just a directional change, it requires a
complete transformation of the business from one form to another completely
different form. A nice extra to the book are the numerous "Key points" scattered
throughout the text. By summarizing the prior information in just one or two
sentences and making it stand out from the text it is easy to quickly read over
the key points of the book and refresh your memory on an ongoing basis. An
excellent book on business and change that also has some applicability to
personal change, it is a recommended read.
World Trivia: The Book Of
Fascinating Facts: Culture, Politics And Geography
Michael Scott Smith, Cash
Donovan (Illustrator)
East West Discovery Press
PO Box 2393, Gardena, CA
90247
0966943708 $9.95, Pages: 262
World Trivia is a small book filled
with trivia questions from around the world. Each page has a single question
with the answer on the reverse. It contains an excellent selection of questions
that I found genuinely interesting, however, with only one question on a page it
contains only just over 130 questions. It would have been nice if there were two
or three questions per page. There are very few trivia books that have the nerve
to ask questions on culture and politics because they change so quickly in some
parts of the world. That is the situation here, some of the questions and
answers are outdated because of the rapid political and cultural changes in the
Middle East. It still makes an interesting read and is a great book to leave
lying around for company to pick up and leaf through.
Multiple Streams Of
Internet Income
Robert G. Allen
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
605 Third
Ave., New York, NY 10158-0012
047121888X $16.95, Pages: 288
In
Multiple Streams Of Internet Income Allen points the way to using the Internet
as a vehicle for attracting wealth and the personal freedom that comes with
wealth. The book covers marketing fundamentals as well as how to apply those
principles to the special needs and opportunities of the Internet. In addition,
it covers specific opportunities and techniques unique to the Internet and how
to use them to make money. (For example, selling links and web-site
affiliations). And, of course, it covers more traditional manners of generating
income such as advertising, auctions, niche marketing, etc. One of the best
things about the book is the detail with which he goes over the process from
beginning to end and all of the options in between. This produces a repeatable
framework that anyone can use to follow Robert Allen's footsteps. The bottom
line is that the Internet is probably the fastest and easiest method for making
a lot of money in the current economy. Following the principles and techniques
set forth in Multiple Streams Of Internet Income the average person should be
able to create sources of recurring online income. Recommended for those wishing
to pursue using the internet as a source of either primary or secondary
income.
Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident And Courageous
Daughters
JoAnn Deak, Teresa Barker (Contributor)
Hyperion Press
77W.
66th Street, New York, NY 10023-6298
078686768X $23.95, Pages:
287
Enlightening, provocative and powerful, this is perhaps the most
useful book on raising daughters that I have ever read. In the book Deak covers
the problems, confusion, motivations and fears that are all a normal part of
growing up female. But more than just noting that they exist and their basis,
she also provides practical advice on how to deal with the problems in a
proactive and productive manner. The book follows the expected logical pattern
of moving from the basics of perspective through the normal growing up process.
First are the formative years, then preadolescent, then adolescent years. Of
special interest, she includes chapters on the special relationship between
daughters and their mother as well as one on the relationship between daughters
and their father and one of dealing with the normal fears and worries of being
parents. Each chapter has comments from girls at that age or referring to the
subject of the chapter as well as the defining or "crucible" events that occur
during that age or relationship. If there were one book that I would recommend
to anyone raising a girl in today's world, this would be the one that I would
recommend. It stands like a lighthouse warning parents of dangerous shoals and
how to avoid them as well as offering guidance on how to help their daughters
negotiate dangerous waters and come out safe. This book truly lives up to the
title and empowers parents with the tools to mold young girls into confident,
courageous and well-adjusted adult women.
Surrendering To Marriage:
Husbands, Wives, And Other Imperfections
Iris Krasnow
Hyperion
77 W.
66th Street, New York, NY 10023-6298
0786887710 $13.00, Pages: 235
In
Surrendering To Marriage Iris Krasnow openly exposes an aspect of marriage that
is generally not discussed - that the perfect marriage includes problems. With
divorce so easy to come by and people entering into marriage with the concept
that if it does not work then they can just get a divorce, it is refreshing to
find someone who openly discusses the realities of marriage. Marriage requires
committment, work and real personal growth as well as concession and recognition
that people come into a marriage with their problems and quirks. Drop the
expectations of perfection and come to surrender to the fact that all marriages
have problems. The grass is not greener on the other side. When you divorce and
enter into a new marriage you bring the same you into the new marriage. The
measuring stick of the perfect marriage is not that it has no problems but how
the couple deals with their problems. This does not mean that all marriages can
be or should be salvaged. There are situations such as abuse or life-threatening
situations that may require a much more drastic course of action. While the
author is full-force in favor of working through problems in a marriage, she
does recognize that some situations require drastic action for your own
protection. Full of actual interviews and real life situations, the book is
insightful and to the point. Not only does it discuss the real life problems of
marriage, but also the real life effect of radical actions such an extra-marital
affair. Did it harm the marriage? Did it provide the excitement sought? Did it
really provide a solution or even more problems? No sugar-coating of the truth
here, just the cold, hard facts. While it is true that some marriages have more
problems than others, Iris Krasnow's discussion of the realities of married life
should be read by everyone contemplating marriage or married people
contemplating a radical action. A highly recommended common sense, reality based
book.
The Ultimate Sales Letter
Dan S. Kennedy
Adams Media
Corporation
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322
1580622577 $10.95,
Pages: 187 plus index
Although designed primarily for the direct-mail
market, the principles and techniques of The Ultimate Sales Letter : Boost Your
Sales With Powerful Sales Letters, Based On Madison Avenue Techniques can be
adapted and applied to a wide variety of situations. Kennedy covers all the
important topics and techniques on how to write the letter so that it not only
gets opened but read and acted on. One of the most common mistakes a poor
salesman makes is trying to sell a product based on features. This is totally
ineffective when compared to selling based on the benefits the product will
provide the customer. Kennedy does an excellent job of demonstrating the
difference and how to write a sales letter that focuses on the benefits to a
customer. The result is a highly effective letter. Add to this the tricks of the
trade, writing style, revision information and multitude of other tips that fill
the book and you have one of the best books on writing sales letters that I have
ever read. Well organized, well written, and easily understood, Kennedy takes
you through a complete and repeateable process from concept to followup to sale
that does not miss a beat. If you want a sales letter that can produce leads and
then convert the leads to sales there is no better book on the market
today.
The Fast Track Course On How To Write A Nonfiction Book
Proposal
Stephen Blake Mettee
Word Dancer Press
1831 Industrial Way,
#101, Sanger, CA 93657
188495622X $12.95, Pages: 128
A query letter
and book proposal is the best place to start when considering writing a
nonfiction book. Using the query letter and book proposal you can locate a
publisher interested in printing your book before you spend all that time
writing it. The purpose of a proposal is to give a very busy editor enough
information to determine if they have an interest in the book and to have at
least a basic level of confidence in you as an author. In his book Mettee gives
many detailed examples of what should be included in the proposal and well as
example proposals and queries. In addition he covers contracts, agents,
royalties and other factors that you will need to understand. Finally, he
includes the very important information of what should not be in the proposal.
In How To Write A Nonfiction Book Proposal you receive a complete guide to
writing a professional proposal that greatly increases the chances of getting
your book published. A highly recommended read and a required read for any new
nonfiction writer.
Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?
Marc
McCutcheon
Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press
1831 Industrial Way #101,
Sanger, CA 93657
1884956173 $14.95, Pages: 256
The common conception
about writing as a career is that it is difficult to get into and produces many
"starving" artists. While this may be true in many situations, In Damn! Why
Didn't I Write That? How Ordinary People Are Raking In $100,000.00...or More
Writing Nonfiction Books & How You Can Too!, Marc McCutcheon argues
convincingly that it is not necessarily the case when it comes to nonfiction
writing. According to the author over 50,000 new books are published each year,
but only about 3,500 of them are fiction. As a result, most of the competition
is in the fiction area. The nonfiction area is by far the easiest one in which
to become published. The author relates how even a beginning writer can learn to
write nonfiction and start making a living as a writer much faster than commonly
believed. The book is filled with the necessary details of not only writing a
great nonfiction work but also how to handle contract negotiations, why you need
(or don't need) an agent, writing proposals, marketing and just about any other
subject that the writer may need to know. Throughout the book, McCutcheon
encourages the new writer and points out that many top selling titles were
written by ordinary people without any special writing skills or training. A
book that should be on the bookshelf of all writers, I can't recommend it highly
enough.
Beautiful Moments In The Wild: Animals And Their
Colors
Editor: Stephanie Maze
Moonstone Press
7820 Oracle Place,
Potomac, Maryland 20854
097077687X $15.00, Pages: 32
Beautiful Moments
In The Wild is a pre-school level book filled with beautiful animal photography.
Sure to keep a child's interest as the full color plates fill each page, each
animal is included because of it's particular color or range of colors. Solidly
bound to put up with the stress of being handled by children, it is sure to be a
favorite. A highly recommended pre-school book.
Tender Moments In The
Wild: Animals And Their Babies
Editor: Stephanie Maze
Moonstone
Press
7820 Oracle Place, Potomac, Maryland 20854
0970776802 $15.00, Pages:
32
Beautiful, captivating photography makes this one of the best
pre-school picture books that I have had the pleasure to review. Instantly
appealing it celebrates the bond of affection between a parent and child.
Solidly bound to put up with the abuse that it is sure to receive as childred
carry it around to have mommy or daddy read it to them one more time, it is a
highly recommended purchase.
Harold McFarland
Reviewer
Skea's Bookshelf
BRICK 69: A Literary Journal. Spring
2002
Ondaatje, Redhill. Spalding, editors
Macmillan
ISBN: 0968755534
PRICE: A$20.00 (paperback) 184 pages
My first impression of this journal
was that it was produced by a group of people who had a nice sense of humour.
"Subscribe...or it's fricasee time for Bugs", announces a half-page
advertisement: 'Bugs' being a lop-eared rabbit charmingly sketched by Mary
Meigs, an artist who is relearning her drawing skills after suffering a stroke.
And Margaret Atwood, who has contributed a cartoon to this edition, is listed
amongst "The Usual Suspects" as their regular cartoonist: "She is also a
writer", it says.
My second impression, after reading Mark Abley's piece
about the Boro language, (which has such very useful verbs as "gobray: to fall
in a well unknowingly": as distinguished from "gobram: to shout in ones sleep"),
was to wonder why I had never heard of this journal before. This is, after all
issue 69 of a bi-annual journal. It is published in Toronto, Canada, which is
still a long way from Sydney, Australia (in all sorts of ways). No doubt that's
why.
My final impression, having read all the articles, is that this is a
very literary, literate and avant-garde journal which presents a variety of
views on a wide range of subjects. Sadly, I fear that it will find only a small,
probably academic, readership in Australia, especially since one or two of the
articles require some familiarity with the Canadian literary
scene.
Nevertheless, there is good reading here. The journal is devoted
to non-fiction topics and this issue includes interviews with W.G. Sebald and
Charles Johnson; an extract from a conversation between Michael Ondaatje and
film editor, Walter Murch (from a recently published book); a discussion about
ultra-modern poetry, sound poetry and virtual poetry between two Canadian poets,
Christian B”k (whose recent book, Eunoia, is the fastest-selling book in
Canadian history and tells a story in five chapters using only one vowel per
chapter) and Darren Wershler-Henry (whose book, the tapeworm foundry, is a
single run-on sentence proposing ideas that a writer might use for inspiration);
an article about travel, politics and culture in Pakistan in 1988 and 1990; a
piece about Stendhal's methods in his Life of Henry Brulard; poetry, pictures,
and much much more.
Anyone seriously interested in modern literature, its
practitioners and its current practice, will find this journal well-written,
thought-provoking and challenging.
Timepieces
Drusilla
Modjeska
MacMillan
ISBN: 0330363727 PRICE: A$22.00 (paperback) 229
pages
"There was once a tradition that when a cabinet maker finished his
apprenticeship, he'd make a miniature chest, or cabinet, as a gift for his
master."
So, begins Drusilla Modjeska in her introduction to this small
collection of her essays. But although the idea for this book was conceived with
this pattern in mind, Modjeska soon found that the art of writing did not lend
itself to imitation in miniature. For one thing, her "masters" were too many and
too diverse, ranging from Christina Stead, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing,
Eleanor Dark and Dorothy Green, to editors like George Munster and Hillary
McPhee. So, what was planned as a simple collection of pieces drawn from a
career in writing, turned into a re-assessment and re-interpretation of some of
those pieces. "There's a lot I'd say now that I wouldn't say then" Modjeska
notes, and she chose these pieces accordingly, changing some and adding to
others.
As always, her writing is a pleasure to read. Most of the essays
in the book are diverse and interesting: a mixture of memoir, literary
criticism, biography, autobiography, art appreciation, and comment on the
Australian literary scene seasoned with a little politics. The final two essays
in the book, however, are much more serious and challenging. They are more
densely argued, very much more political and controversial, and they are suited
more to the arena of academic literary debate that to a general readership. This
is not criticism. Rather, it is a warning to those who might expect to read all
of this book as they did Poppy or The Orchard, neither of which were
predictable, straightforward narratives, but both of which were works of
imagination with no overt reference to current Australian politics or literary
issues.
'Memoir Australia' and 'The Present in Fiction' , however, deal
with issues such as Prime Minister, John Howard's, refusal to apologize to the
Aboriginal people of Australia, and his handling of immigration issues. They
also deal with the relationship between fiction and fact, meaning and life. Big
issues, with serious implications, discussed from a very Australian perspective.
Interesting, but not easy reading.
In the end, those who already know
Modjeska's work will enjoy these essays as much for her usual skill in sharing
her enthusiasm for literature and art as for the more personal and passionate
views she expresses about the country in which she chooses to live and work.
Newcomers to her work will appreciate her intelligent and forthright approach
and may well be inspired to read more of her work.
Henry VIII: King And
Court
Alison Weir
Pimlico, Random House
ISBN: 0712664513 PRICE: A$28.00
(paperback) 639 pages
Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345436598, $28.00, 608
pages
It is hard to improve on Alison Weir's own Introduction. "My aim",
she writes, "has been to draw together a multitude of strands of research in
order to develop a picture of the real Henry VIII, his personal life throughout
his reign, the court he created and the people who influenced and served
him."
This she does admirably, providing detailed information about every
aspect of Henry's daily life, from the time he rose and was dressed each
morning, through his various courtly and administrative routines, his work and
his play, his loves and his hates, to the time (midnight) when he retired to his
bed of estate and thence to his privy chamber for the night.
Working from
original documents and other contemporary sources, Alison Weir assembles a
picture of the court, the times, the man, and some of those around him. Henry
appears as very human: neither wholly god-like not wholly a monster but
certainly both at different times of his life. His marriages are dealt with
briefly and factually (Weir has written about them in detail in an earlier
book), so too is his relationship with his Cardinals and with other important
figures.
With so much material to handle and such an eventful life to
cover, this book (thick as it is) is deliberately narrow in its focus. The
political history of Henry's reign is outside its scope. So too, is the broader
context of events in Europe, without a knowledge of which many of Henry's most
important decisions appear arbitrary and self-orientated. Nevertheless, Alison
Weir has done a superb job of bringing to life a remote period of history in an
interesting and accessible way. Not for her is the journalistic, simplistic
presentation of unproven "facts", such as was seen in the recent TV series on
Henry's wives. She examines some of the most contentious aspects of Henry's
life, and she offers informed, documented and careful
opinions.
Inevitably, much of the book will already be familiar to those
who are interested in Henry's reign, but there is still much that is of interest
and much to be learned about Henry's life and his court which has not been
brought together in this way before.
The Snow Geese
William
Fiennes
Picador, PanMacmillan
ISBN: 0330375784 PRICE: A$40.00 (hardback)
250 pages
Random House
ISBN: 0375507299, $24.95, 288 pages
'This
guy's come from England to watch geese,' Ken said. 'Is that so?' Jack replied
absently, smoothing his hair back, gazing out over the lake and flat fields.
'He's going to follow them from Eagle Lake to Canada, Hudson Bay, maybe even the
Arctic Ocean.' 'Each to his own,' said Jack. 'He just flew in. Hasn't ever seen
a snow goose.' ' Is that right? Sometimes I wish I'd never seen a snow
goose.'
William Fiennes passion for snow geese began by accident.
Convalescing from an unexpected and frightening illness, he found a familiar
book amongst the pristine volumes in the pseudo library of his hotel - The Snow
Goose by Paul Gallico. Outside the hotel, professional women golfers with
"tanned calves [that] resembled fresh tench attached to the backs of their
shins" practised their golf strokes: inside, Fiennes lost himself in this book.
It haunted him, and inspired him with a new passion for birds and bird-watching.
In particular, migratory birds, and especially snow geese, became an obsession
and he started planning to follow their migratory routes across
America.
The Snow Geese records Fiennes journey, but it is a very quirky
record in which science is entangled with Fiennes unique perception of the
people he meets along the way, and his meditative observations on the homing
instinct in birds and humans. He not only has an ornithologist's eye for the
oddities of our own species, he has a wonderfully vivid and unexpected way of
recording them:
"The spherical man was first up, grabbing the handles of
a leatherette overnight bag with his left hand, wielding the orthopaedic stick
in his right, and walking briskly with the rolling gait of a goose towards the
uniformed VIA ticket collector at the gate."
Unexpectedly, this elderly
man turned out to have run away from home at the age of fifteen just to ride the
freight trains. His tales of jumping rattlers, and of the wino's and hobo's he
met up with along the way, amused Fiennes from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay, but
Fiennes own account of the problems which faced the men who built the Hudson Bay
Railway is equally fascinating.
And although Fiennes' tracking of the
migrating snow geese was not as smooth as he expected, he certainly saw geese.
On the front cover of the book is a picture which looks like a random pattern of
grey, white and blue. On closer inspection, it resolves itself into an
Escher-like picture of geese. It is, in fact, a photograph of snow geese in
flight - huge flocks of birds, just as Fiennes first saw them in Texas. There,
from faint drifts of specks on the horizon, the birds flew closer until each
speck became a goose and finally "whole flocks circled over the roost, thousands
of geese swirling round and round, as if the pond were the mouth of a drain and
these geese the whirlpool turning above it. Nothing had prepared me for the
sound, this dense, boisterous din, the clamour of a playground at
breaktime..."
From Texas, Fiennes followed the geese north, travelling by
Greyhound bus, by car and by train. Sometimes he had to wait for the geese to
catch up, but each wait had its own character and interest. Each was full of
surprises. Eventually, he reached the breeding ground of the snow geese in Foxe
Land, on the edge of the Hudson Strait. There, in a landscape so strange to him
that he felt dazed and disorientated, he borrowed a Snow Goose parka patched
with grey masking tape, pocketed a can of CounterAttack bear-repellent gas and
accompanied an Inuit elder and her chain-smoking son on a hunting expedition. To
his distress, he ended up eating snow-goose stew.
Fiennes own journey,
like that of the geese, was one of migration and return, and of discovery. As
well as describing his journey, he describes the earliest medical recognition of
nostalgia (homesickness) as a clinical condition in humans; he explains the
strange experiments scientists have devised to discover why and how birds
migrate; and he notes, in passing, the migratory and homing instincts of the
people he meets and finds the same impulses in himself.
This is an
unusual and very enjoyable book. It shares something of the spirit of Peter
Matthiesson's The Snow Leopard, but Fiennes has his own distinctive way of
seeing the world and he writes about it beautifully.
The
Resurrectionists
Michael Collins
Weidenfeld & Nicholson
ISBN:
1861591950 PRICE: A$29.95(paperback) 360 pages
Scribner
ISBN: 0743238567,
$24.00 (October 2002)
Frank Cassidy is a sick man, and in many ways this
is a sick book. Just about everyone in it is mentally disordered in some way,
even the psychologist, who is obsessed with proving his own theory in any way he
can.
Frank has been psychoanalysed; he was once confined in a mental
institution; and he has been subjected to ECT; but he is also the victim of
circumstances and events which add to his mental confusion. And since Frank
tells this story, the reader is disorientated too.
Frank is an unpleasant
character and it is hard to empathize with him as he tries to unravel the
mystery of his Uncle's supposed murder. Nor did I find anything amusing about
the sordid unpleasantness of his life, although the publicity handout for this
book describes it as "Brilliantly funny and unsettling".
It is unsettling
all right. And the mystery is there, largely due to Frank's repressed and
burned-out memories. In summary: As far as Frank knows his parents died in a
fire on their farm when he was a child. He remembers a burning barn; fear; his
Uncle's presence; and a man called Chester Green, whose name he calls out in
recurrent nightmares but who was dead at the time of the fire. Now, suddenly,
Frank's Uncle has been found dead with a bullet in his head and a gun in his
hand; a man with Chester Green's distinctive tattoo is suspected of his murder
but is in a coma in hospital after trying to hang himself; and Frank or his
cousin, Norman, or Norman's wife, are also under suspicion and may well have
done the deed.
If you can put up with Frank and the unpleasant ways in
which he wilfully alienates his wife, his step-son, his sister-in-law and
everyone else, then the confusion and puzzlement may keep you reading until the
end. But you may find the denouement as disappointing and over-elaborate as I
did, and the book's title gives you a hefty clue right from the
start.
Not my cup of poison, as you can tell, but mystery addicts may
feel differently about it all.
The War Against Clich‚
Martin
Amis
Vintage, PanMacmillan
ISBN: 0099422220 PRICE: A$26.96(paperback) 506
pages
Vintage Books
ISBN: 0375727167, $16.00, 527
pages
"Everybody", cries Martin Amis, referring us to the Internet to
prove his point, "has become a literary critic - or at least a book-reviewer".
This, apparently, is all part of the "democratization" of the literary world. Mr
Amis does not deplore this move towards egalitarianism (he believes that would
be pointless) but he thinks it unrealistically utopian and he feels that the
results will be contaminated by "herd opinions and social anxieties, vanities,
touchiness, and everything else that makes up self". He yearns for the eternal
verities on which literary critics(and reviewers) once based their views: the
canon; "the body of knowledge we all call literature"; Art.
Mr Amis is an
idealist. But he is right about talent. Talent is not something which can be
democratized; and fresh, original, unclich‚d writing requires talent. For Mr
Amis, the "crucial defect" in literary journalism is dullness. In this
collection of his own essays and reviews he not only wages war against clich‚,
he demonstrates just how fresh and energetic and enjoyable talented criticism
can be. He is hardly ever dull. Of course it is tempting to go through his
pieces and pick out the clich‚s (literary criticism is "dead and gone" and
egalitarianism has "the pale a glow of illusion", for example, - and that's just
in the Foreword) but that would be churlish given the enjoyable quality of most
of the pieces in this book. The collection covers a period of thirty years and
the pieces were originally published in such magazines and newspapers as The New
York Times Review of Books, the Atlantic Monthly, The Times, Observer, Guardian
and the London Review of Books.
Mr Amis's "voice" in this collection is
by turns critical, argumentative, applauding, witty, and often shockingly
irreverent and insulting. It is rarely boring, although on the evidence of some
of the pieces he is not always remote from the "hot snort of the hobby horse"
which he identifies in his review of a collection of John Updike's essays and
criticism.
It is a matter of curiosity, too, that Mr Amis rather quaintly
accords some authors a title (Mr Parker or Miss Murdoch, for example) whilst
others are referred to by their surname (Updike, Nabokov, Vidal etc.) or, in
Hillary Clinton's case, by just "Hillary". Perhaps there is a note of irony in
the use of a title, and man-to-man respect in the surname-only form of address.
There is clearly disparagement in calling Hillary Clinton simply '"Hillary", if
Mr Amis's assessment of her literary skills in his review of It Takes a Village
is anything to judge by. This particular review was the first piece I read in Mr
Amis's book and his sarcasm took my breath away. It also made me
laugh.
Another piece which surprised and amused me was 'Zeus and the
Garbage", in which Mr Amis was consumed by mirth and prompted to explore male
consciousness by Robert Bly's Iron John. Iron John was grouped with such
unlikely bedfellows as Margaret Thatcher, Andy Warhol and Elvis Presley in a
section called 'On Masculinity and Related Questions'. Other section-titles
include 'Some English Prose', 'Philip Larkin', 'From the Canon', 'Vladimir
Nabokov', 'Some American Prose' and 'Great Books'. In all of them, I found
things to interesting me and I was sorry when I had finished the book.
I
especially liked Mr Amis's essay on the "revaluation" of Philip Larkin
(reprinted from the New Yorker, 1993) in which he restores Larkin's work to the
social context in which it was written, puts the Hermit of Hull's various
accusers in their place, and brings us back to the poetry, not the man. Would
that more critics might follow this example and turn from biography, gossip and
concerns about political correctness to the work itself.
But here I am
writing like one of those Internet reviewers who, as Mr Amis imagines, settles
into a book "defensively", sees which way it "rubs him up," [him?] "the right
way or the wrong way", and then writes a review "without any reference to the
thing behind", i.e. to the canon etc. I don't think Mr Amis is always as immune
to this approach as he thinks he is, but often his personal reactions to a book
are funnier and/or more interesting than any demonstration of his educated
background. Nevertheless, it might be educative for Mr Amis to write a few
Internet essays and reviews himself - just to set us an example and to lead us
back to Art. He would discover, too, that Internet readers are amongst the most
demanding, knowledgeable and talented review and essay readers he could hope to
find.
Ann Skea, Reviewer
http://ann.skea.com
Judy's Bookshelf
Spin Wave Technology
George Bugh
Vasant
Corporation
P.O. Box 121741, Fort Worth, TX, 76121-0741, USA
ISBN:
097166160X (165 HTML pages) Price: $34.00,
http://www.vasantcorporation.com/
Format: CD Rom,, Initial Release,
Collectors Edition, 2001
The author believes: "Using conventional
science, it is possible to explain electromagnetic processes that have not been
understood or described previously." (Cover notes) He states that spin wave
processes may prove to be the basis for future technological advances; and in
this CD Rom, Bugh shares his research on this subject.
There is a great
deal of interest world-wide in various areas of spin wave theory. Bugh's
interest is in electromagnetic fields and spin waves as they relate to
propulsion, power generation, signal generating and communications. This opens
up a wide field of study of concepts that could be applied to include: ESP,
UFO's and alternate sources of power.
George Bugh is a senior staff
electronics engineer in the aero-space industry with 19 years of experience in
the field of electronics and electromagnetic devices. His work involves testing
various systems of advanced aircraft design using flight simulation studies. The
CD Rom is not a result of work done for his employer, rather it was a project he
did on his own time.
In his off hours, Bugh began to browse the web where
he visited sites with content about electromagnetic theory, spin waves, and
related devices. He began to wonder if there could be any truth to the claims
being made in relation to the electrical output of some of the unusual devices
he found online. He realized that to understand the concepts and theories about
spin waves, he would have to learn more about quantum physics so he could apply
that knowledge in his research. Bugh embarked on a six year course of
self-study, also learning more about the nature of time, and Einstein's Theory
of Relativity, while conducting his research.
This CD Rom is comprised of
forty files developed during that research. There's also an introductory video
lecture, by the author, expanding on the concepts put forth. The CD is in the
format of HTML pages, viewable in Netscape or MS Explorer browsers, with .mpg
and .mov files included. There are many links to web sites, with definitions and
supporting information, which the reader can access online. Included, are four
very nice original music selections composed by Stephan D. Schmidt - the CD
Rom's web designer.
Bugh's application of the theories discussed and the
conclusions he puts forth on the CD are not scientifically validated. His
exploration into spin wave theory is from the point of view of an electronic
engineer with a curiosity about possible adaptations of spin wave theory and
electromagnetic devices.
The author postulates:
"Classically, all
precessional motion of charged particles should emit and absorb EM waves
regardless of the amplitude of the waves. It is this author's contention that
they do. The EM waves of paired electrons will cancel except for an oscillating
magnetic field direction with no accompanying electric field oscillations. This
is because while one precesses clockwise the other will precess
counter-clockwise.
"If this theory is correct there should be waves of
toggling magnetic field direction at a frequency or a set of frequencies that is
common to all atoms. There may be a frequency associated with the precessional
frequency of paired electrons in each of the possible orbitals. There should
also be a much higher frequency or set of frequencies common to precessing
quarks in protons and neutrons of all atoms." (File 25)
Although not yet
scientifically proven, by offering his conclusions Bugh provides a springboard
for further discussion with readers who may be able to build on his research.
Instead of being an academic, scientifically validated discourse, the material
presents as a discussion between interested students sitting around the dorm.
The author's inclusion of copies of related discussions between himself and
other interested parties on a Usenet forum add to the easy-to-read, informal
nature of the production.
There are drawings to help the reader
understand the concepts, and Bugh includes many mathematical equations
throughout the work. The CD could use a bit more line editing, although not
riddled with grammatical errors, there are some. All the links that I tried were
working well; but the author does warn readers, due to the nature of the
Internet, that some online links may not work. There is a related web site where
readers can get the most up-to-date information and notice of any errors. In
visiting the web site while doing my review, I did note that the author reported
that one of the drawings on the CD was incorrectly formatted. New editions will
certainly be corrected.
This CD is for the informed reader. Students, and
those of a scientific bent, may find this to be of interest. Anyone working in
the field of spin wave theory may enjoy working out the exercises the author
uses to demonstrate some of his points in order to see if the conclusions drawn
are ones worth further study.
The author hopes, by sharing his research,
that he may stimulate discussion that may lead to new technological advances. A
print book, based on the material presented in the CD Rom version, will be
available in the near future.
How To Promote Your Local Business On the
Internet
Sharon Fling
e-Net Business Solutions
337 - 14431 Ventura
Blvd., Sherman Oaks, California, USA 91423
ISBN: 0-9718971-0-7 First Edition,
2002, Format: PDF (137 pages) Price: $37.00,
http://www.localbizpromo.com
The author is an experienced web designer
and Internet business person. Sharon Fling has written an ebook that is the
definitive manual for making your business website a successful
enterprise.
The Internet first started as an information sharing
technology between government agencies in the military. The educational
community also used it to network with peers for the free dissemination of
information. Somewhere along the way, there was a ground swell of entrepreneurs
who decided that they could make lucrative livings by starting up online
businesses. The dot.com boom was on and Investors lined up to shell out the
millions to finance the new phenomenem. It didn't take long before the boom was
bust and the financing dried up. Many people lost money and a large percentage
of online business dropped out of sight. The boom was over.
The reason
why? The idea of earning large sums online with little or no work was not in
keeping with what people had come to expect from the Internet. Fly-by-night
operators fleecing unsuspecting buyers were widely reported and caused would-be
shoppers to be suspicious of security and trust in the online marketplace. Many
bricks and mortar business people realized the importance of having a website
but they didn't know how to go about getting started online, or if they did pay
someone to create a web presence they weren't using it to full
effect.
Sharon Fling is one of the few Internet business persons to
realize that having a website can compliment your local bricks and mortar
business. Her ebook, How To Promote Your Local Business On The Internet, is the
definitive manual for marketing your offline business online, and even if you
don't have an offline business you can pick up many great tips to improve your
online business strategies.
Fling understands perfectly, the law of the
web, "Gimme Some Free Stuff" (p. 8) and has suggestions for freebies to give
away. The author suggests "Building relationships is what business is about,
especially on the Internet. Focus on the customer and you'll never have to worry
about selling. Win their loyalty and trust and they'll buy from you willingly,
over and over again." (p. 14) The author goes on to describe winning strategies
for ecommerce, how to use email in your marketing and how to go about setting up
your first website. Even the most inexperienced user will find this to be an
invaluable learning tool that will provide the incentive to set up a website
that will be a winner for any type of business.
Chapter 10 is a series of
case studies that are, alone, worth more than the price of this ebook. Anyone
interested in what to offer online to enhance an offline business will find a
wealth of information from the experience of the businesses depicted here. There
are also links to each website so the reader can see just how a successful
website is set up.
Appendix A is a glossary of Internet terms and
Appendix B offers an extensive list of online resources for business people with
links to each website.
Appendix C, Internet 101 is a primer for the new
Internet user by Scott Cottingham of Internet101.org, "...selected by Yahoo as
one of the three best sites on the net for beginners." (p. 102) It is an
excellent guideline for anyone wanting to learn how to use the Internet and is
written in such a way that even the first time user will get a good grounding in
how to search for information, find free software and much, much more.
As
an ebook specialist for the Midwest Book Review, I read many ebooks, I can say
that "How To Promote Your Local Business On The Internet" is one of the most
attractive and well formatted ebooks I've seen. The information flows logically
and is written with clarity in a straightforward manner. Every page has valuable
advice with tips and links to more information on the subject at hand. The
graphics are particularly well done, just enough to relieve the eyes and
highlight the text. They are small and very well designed.
One of the
most informative and helpful ebooks I've had the pleasure of reviewing. Very
highly recommended.
Reviewed by Judy
Justice
http://www.creativepurrsuits.com/
Harwood's Bookshelf
The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To
Read
Tim C. Leedom, editor
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
4050
Westmark Drive, Dubuque, Iowa 52002
ISBN 0840389086, 1993, 446 pp, ppb, $20
from Amazon.com
"Knowing the reaction of established religion in the past
to critique and examination, we anticipate a strong response from those who
won't even read The Book. These leaders and followers continually take the
attitude, 'don't bother me with facts; I've already made up my mind.'" (p.
iii)
"Because of religion, more human beings have been murdered,
tortured, maimed, denigrated, discriminated against, humiliated, hated and
scorned than for any other reason in the totality of the history of man." (p.
v)
After that promising opening, The Book moves steadily downhill. This
well-meaning proof that "a little learning is a dangerous thing" is riddled with
inaccuracies. For example, it credits Paul of Tarsus with adopting the Mithraic
Sun-day to replace the Hebrew Sabbath. (p. 4) In fact Christianity had no sacred
rest day until Constantine borrowed the Mithraic Sun-day three centuries after
Paul.
It states that "Ancient man saw in his male offspring his own image
and likeness, and his own existence as a father was proved by the person of his
son." (p. 21) But men did not have any "father" concept until c 3500 BCE,
millennia later than the author of that passage appears to believe. It lists the
original concept of the zodiac, "circle of animal," as consisting of twelve
houses. (p. 24) But the original zodiac contained thirteen houses. Ophiuchus was
purged and its portion of the sky transferred to neighboring Scorpio sometime
after the male revolution of c 3500 BCE.
While The Book correctly
identifies the hexagram as "evolving later to become the Jewish Star of David,"
(p. 42) it gives its origin as a Hindu sun symbol. In fact it originated as a
sex-glorification, with an up-pointing triangle representing the male genitalia
superimposed on a down-pointing triangle representing the female genital
orifice. And while it identifies the sixth-century Mandylion of Edessa as the
source of all later portraits of Jesus, it does not mention that, prior to the
sixth century, Jesus was acknowledged even by Christian apologists to have been
ugly, deformed, and "not even of honest human shape." As for the statement that
Jesus' Aramaic/Hebrew name was Yehoshua, (p. 147) the author of that item was
either unaware or, as a practising pusher, deliberately concealed that the
correct name was Yahuwshua, Yahuw being the Jewish god's proper name.
The
Book also includes an excerpt from John Allegro's hypothesis that Jesus the
Nazirite was "really" a deified mushroom, a theory so ridiculous that Robert
Graves called it a "hoax." Graves was far too polite. Allegro's mushroom fantasy
destroyed his reputation, and rightly so. The inclusion of such drivel says more
about the editors' status as amateurs than perhaps anything else in the
book.
On the good side, The Book includes a letter from Thomas Jefferson
to his nephew (pp. 33-34), spelling out a methodology for examining the evidence
on which religious claims are based, a methodology currently used by all
legitimate scholars in all fields and rejected only by those disciplines
(religion, parapsychology) that start from predetermined conclusions and distort
the evidence until it fits. Articles by Bertrand Russell, Thomas Paine, Steve
Allen and Joseph Campbell argue against the illogic of religious thinking, as do
pieces by scholars whose names are less known to the masses, such as Gerald
Larue, G. Vermes, A. J. Mattill Jr, Morton Smith, Robert Ingersoll and Joseph
McCabe.
There is a lot of interesting reading in The Book Your Church Doesn't
Want You To Read, but nothing to justify its pretentious title. Indeed, bible
thumpers might be well advised to promote the book, so they can argue that, if
this is the best case that can be made against religion, it has nothing to fear.
Fortunately, there are books in print that do to religion what the first
photographs of the Martian surface did to the "canals" delusion, including those
of Martin Larson, Richard Friedman, McCabe and Ingersoll, not to mention
Mythology's Last Gods.
Bad Astronomy
Philip Plait
John Wiley &
Sons
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012
ISBN 0471409766, 277 pp.,
ppb, $15.95
"Movies show space travel all the time, but they show it
incorrectly, and so it doesn't surprise me that the majority of the viewing
public has the wrong impression about how it really works.... The news media's
job is to report the facts clearly, with as much accuracy as possible.
Unfortunately, this isn't always the case.... I remember vividly watching the
Today show on NBC in 1994. The Space Shuttle was in orbit, and it was doing an
experiment.... Anchor Matt Lauer was reporting on this experiment, and ...
admitted he didn't understand what he had just said. Think about that for a
moment: three of America's most famous journalists, and they actually laughed at
their own ignorance in science! The report itself was accurate ... but what the
public saw was three respected journalists saying tacitly that it's okay to be
ignorant about science. It isn't okay. In fact it's dangerous to be ignorant
about science. Our lives and our livelihoods depend on it." (pp.
2-4)
After that promising start, Plait's next hundred pages drop to a
level appropriate to junior high school in any country in which teaching is
still legal, or first-year university in North America. The information
dispensed is trivial, but readable and useful-to the degree that one finds it
useful to know that sinks and toilets do not drain clockwise in one hemisphere
and counter-clockwise in the other, and that anything that can be done to an egg
on the vernal equinox, including balancing it on one end, can be accomplished
just as easily any other day of the year. Persons whose knowledge of reality is
more than minimal are urged to skip (or skim) the first thirteen chapters, and
jump directly to "The Disaster that Wasn't," Plait's definitive debunking of the
nonexistent "Jupiter Effect," that had cranks, humbugs and sincere fantasizers
claiming that a planetary alignment could cause the destruction of planet earth.
From that point on, this is a really good book.
For example (p.153):
"People believe weird things. There are people who believe the earth is 6,000
years old. Some people believe that others can talk to the dead, that a
horoscope can accurately guide your day, and that aliens are abducting as many
as 800,000 people a year. I believe weird things, too. I believe that a star can
collapse, disappearing from the universe altogether.... So what's the
difference? Why do I think it's wrong to believe that the earth is young when I
believe in things I've never seen? It's because I have evidence for my beliefs.
I can point to well-documented, rational, reproducible observations and
experiments that bolster my confidence in my conclusions."
And on page
154: "Odds are that you believe NASA sent men to the moon. So why devote a whole
chapter to the minority that doesn't? There are several reasons. The most
important is to simply provide a rational and reasoned voice when such a voice
is hard to find." That may not seem like much of a reason to anyone unfamiliar
with Emmanuel Velikovsky or Roman Piso. But scholars' refusal to dignify those
gentlemen's mushroom fantasies with rebuttals (until they did) led people to
wonder if perhaps they could not be rebutted. I have never met anyone who thinks
the moon landing was a hoax. But the theory has been raised, and without a Plait
to demolish it, it could conceivably start to be taken seriously. That now seems
less likely than it did before.
In his otherwise excellent chapter on
Velikovsky, Plait states (p. 182), "The Hebrew calendar, still going strong
after 5,800 years...." The idea that the Hebrew calendar, which indeed dates
Creation about 5800 years ago, existed any earlier than the oldest biblical
writings, is as "utterly and obviously wrong" as the nonsense Plait is
rebutting. Fortunately, that one credulous paragraph does not weaken the
chapter's effectiveness.
After berating Hollywood's bad astronomy for
placing profits and ratings ahead of accuracy (Gene Roddenberry's desire to have
the Enterprise move silently through the vacuum of space, instead of "whooshing"
as it would do in an atmosphere, was vetoed by the network), Plait writes (p.
257), "Do I really hate Hollywood movies? Armageddon notwithstanding, no I
don't. I like science fiction. I still see every sci-fi movie that comes out....
If movies spark an interest in science in some kid somewhere that's wonderful.
Even a bad movie might make a kid stop and look at a science book in a library,
or want to read more about lasers, or asteroids, or the real possibility of
alien life. Who knows where that might lead?"
No argument from
me.
Litany Of Loons
Jack Truett
Xlibris
436 Walnut Street, 11th
Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106
ISBN 1401049575, 190 pp., ppb, $20.99, (also
available in hardcover)
"Frankly, I don't care one whit what people
believe. That is their individual business and of no concern to me. But when a
belief propels herds of them into damaging the rights and freedoms of others,
when such belief continually and constantly results in hideous wars and
slaughter, and when such belief is obviously destroying my country's future and
its citizens' well being, then it damned well is my business." (p. 9) With those
words, Jack Truett justifies writing a book designed to "help someone else,
maybe even you, to avoid wasting your life-time stumbling fruitlessly on the
same path." (p.8) And he warns, "If you are a 'God' believer, I suggest you
fasten your set belt. Or, if you are determined to live in fear, ignorance, and
slavery the rest of your life, you can toss this book in the trash can now."
(p.51) Sadly, the people most in need of liberation from self-inflicted
mind-slavery are likely to do exactly that.
Truett explains the origin of
tyranny as follows: "Perhaps one day the group encountered a beast of prey smack
in the middle of their berry patch. The 'followers' would expect the King to do
something.... So he grabs a dry piece of brush ... charges at the beast, yelling
and raising hell.... The predator growled threateningly even as he fled ... but
he did go.... A few days later ... there looms out of nowhere, a sudden violent
storm.... The bush shaking and yelling had scared off a vicious beast ... what
if... And, scared of the streaking, howling pandemonium around him, he grabbed
the self same bush, shook it at the roaring storm.... And the storm receded....
And so was born the first 'incantation.' ... The 'Adviser' had gained kudos
galore, and it is very probable that he had also convinced himself of his
'magical' powers." (pp, 21-22)
Anyone who doubts the validity of that
reconstruction need only look at a friend or acquaintance who thinks he/she is
"psychic," to realize that as few as two or three fulfilled expectations in a
lifetime will reinforce the believer's fantasy, while dozens of unfulfilled
prophecies will not disillusion him. And I have met more than one megalomaniac
priest incapable of doubting his power to send anybody who pissed him off to the
Christian Hell.
On the origin of gods: "Awareness seeks answers,
especially to avoid dangers. Explanations offered 'spirits.' Spirits demanded
subservience. And thus Deity Religions were born." (p.38) To back up that
assertion, Truett explains, "When one reads 'Holy' scripture from any of the
world's religious writings, the 'God' that is described matches exactly the
human Kings that ruled on Earth: Childish, self aggrandizing, temperamental,
picayunish, demanding, conceited, and merciless ... always ready with 'reward'
offered for those who will literally kiss his ass." (p. 39)
After
explaining that his disillusionment with religion began in World War II, when he
found himself in a British dungeon still containing torture devices used by the
Catholic Inquisition (not a peculiarly Spanish or splinter-sect phenomenon),
Truett goes on to explain the evidence that falsifies religion far more
effectively than any anecdotal experience. He reports the conclusions of a
five-year examination of the King James Bible by a panel of various experts:
"There are over 19,000 provable errors and self contradictions in God's Word,
The Holy Bible." He adds his own comment, "Does that really sound like an
Omnipotent, All Knowing God inspired the thing?" (p. 148)
Most of
Truett's account of the older religions plagiarized by their bastard offspring,
Christianity, is identical with what is to be found in Mythology's Last Gods.
But in places his interpretation of the facts is very different. A truthseeker
should read both and then decide who is right. Also, while I am not an expert on
Muhammad and the origins of Islam, Ibn Warraq is, and Truett's reconstruction of
the facts of history differs profoundly from Warraq's. Again, a seeker of truth
should read both before reaching a tentative final conclusion. And Truett may be
the first person with the intestinal fortitude to state openly that the position
Muslims assume five times a day, presenting their rear ends to the sky, is an
open invitation to their deity to shtup them up the brunzer.
While I have
no quarrel with Truett's use of the words "hypnotized" and "mesmerized" to
describe the cultural conditioning imposed on all of us on a regular basis by
hidden persuaders, and self-hypnotized is surely the most accurate description
one can come up with for incurable creationists, he reports a wartime anecdote
that appears to indicate a belief that hypnotism as something more than
heightened suggestibility actually exists. Apparently he has not read They Call
it Hypnosis, Robert Baker's definitive debunking of the hypnotism
delusion.
Truett's last chapter, in which he analyses the opening pages
of Genesis, was clearly written before he encountered either Mythology's Last
Gods or The Judaeo-Christian Bible Fully Translated, and was not rewritten to
take the information in those publications into consideration. That is
unfortunate, but it does not invalidate the rest of the book. But, assuming that
he does not actually reject the multiple authorship of the Torah that explains
the inconsistencies he found inexplicable, he should certainly give them a close
reading before writing the second volume of his trilogy.
I sometimes got
the impression that Truett received much of his information orally, and greater
familiarity with the spoken that the written forms of such words as anything,
bloodbath, brainwashing, countryside, everything, Hellfire, hindmost, humankind,
leftover, lifetime, midnight, nevertheless, outcastes, outlays, reincarnation,
selfsame, shamefaced, stranglehold, therein, thumbnail, uppermost, warlords,
wedlock, whatever, wherein, widespread, without, wrongdoing, yourself, and a few
others caused him to write the various parts or syllables as separate words,
sometimes hyphenated. This is trivia, and only a nitpicker such as myself would
even notice. But as a regular contributor to Truett's freethought journal, Pagan
Palaver (P.O. Box 935, Somerville, TN), I need to preempt any accusation of
treating Jack's book less severely than that of an author with whom I am
unacquainted, so that when I say this is a book worth reading, that evaluation
can be accepted as objective, and not simple butt-kissing. And it is worth
reading, despite technical errors that had reached triple digits by page
60-imperfect, but worth reading.
The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light
of Modern Science
Taner Edis
Prometheus Books
ISBN 1573929778, 326 pp,
hc, $29.00
In his introduction to The Ghost in the Universe, Taner Edis
observes (p. 14), "But today, conservative, magical, scripture-waving religion
has become obviously false to the well-educated person.... Now, I don't intend
to spend time refuting such claims; they are too blatantly wrong." He continues
(p. 17), "The complexities of life do not require intelligent design; accidents
and blind mechanisms do the trick. Not only old-fashioned creationism but also
more liberal attempts to find a progressive guiding hand in biology get
nowhere." And as the icing on the cake he adds (p. 24), "It might even be said
that proofs of God enjoy an immortality only truly bad ideas can aspire
to."
In arguing for an evolutionary rather than creationist origin of
life, Edis writes (pp. 51-54), "Evolution accounts for life as we see it, warts
and all-without a designer.... Now that creationism is relegated to the
intellectual fringe, and that liberal religious people accept evolution, it
would seem the Darwin wars are not relevant to today's questions about science
and religion.... When creationism collapsed, this was not because of
philosophical difficulties or even because of a direct contradiction by data.
There were always things which did not fit smoothly; parasites, for example,
strained the picture of benign harmony, even if imperfections could be expected
in a fallen world. In time, more uncomfortable facts like extinct species and an
old earth accumulated.... Populations adapt to their environment and exhibit
good 'design' because genes promoting reproductive success have a better chance
to make it to the next generation.... Indeed, such uncompromising opposition to
evolution as to concoct a bizarre 'creation science' as an alternative is
largely an American, evangelical Protestant peculiarity."
On the failure
of natural science to find any supporting evidence for a metaphysical First
Cause or Intelligent Design, Edis observes (pp. 107-108), "The story is that
Napoleon asked Laplace what part God played in his system, and Laplace answered,
'I have no need of that hypothesis.' ... If we cannot fathom the divine reason
behind why it rained last Sunday, or why the sky is blue, this is hardly a great
challenge to religion. But when God vanishes from physics, indeed, from all
natural science, it begins to look like there is no God after all. If there were
a cosmic power, a divine purpose behind everything, we should see traces of God
in our world. We do not." As for the reasoning behind the God hypothesis, Edis's
comment is (p. 167), "It is like deciding Santa Claus exists because we cannot
figure out who bought one of the presents under our Christmas tree."
On
page 118: "Yahweh decides to cultivate a special nation from the seed of
Abraham. He gathers the Jews out of Egypt, and leads them to a promised land
which becomes theirs after some ethnic cleansing. He also promises that if the
Jews try and become more godly, obey his laws, be nice to their neighbors, and
slaughter whom he dislikes, they will become a privileged people." Reading that
description of the authorized version of the origin of Western religion, I found
myself wondering if it referred to ancient Jews under Joshua, or the modern
Likud under prime ministers whose status as "freedom fighters" rather than
"terrorists" is strictly a function of their being on "our" side.
As a
physicist rather than a historian, Edis not surprisingly makes factual errors
concerning historical documents. For example, he states (p. 121) that
Deuteronomy was "written in or after the exile of the elites of Jerusalem to
Babylon." But Deuteronomy was discovered behind a loose brick in Yahweh's temple
in 621 BCE-a generation before the Babylonian Captivity. It is a minor, one
might even say insignificant, error. But it draws attention to Edis's status as
an amateur in at least one of the fields on which he comments. And, while he
expresses disagreement with some of the conclusions of Burton L. Mack and John
Dominic Crossan, he quotes or paraphrases them to a far greater extent than
their indefensible speculations warrant.
On Muhammad (pp. 130-131):
"Muhammad seems to have been especially concerned about poets who, in an age
without television, could be influential in shaping public opinion. Fortunately,
he was usually able to have them assassinated.... Muhammad dealt with the last
remaining Jewish tribe in Medina by a method straight out of the Bible.... So
the Muslims, led by Muhammad, killed all of the men, divided the property among
themselves, and enslaved the women and children."
On the incompatibility
of different religions (p. 133): "If we create God in our own image, it is no
surprise that God should turn out to have so many different faces."
Edis
asks (p. 153), "How does a Jewish apocalyptic prophet who was dead wrong about
the coming Kingdom and who was crucified as a pest end up starting a Greek
religion?" He suggests, (p. 167), "If Jesus was a failed apocalyptic prophet, a
teacher, or a faith healer, it is hard to see why God would bother resurrecting
him anyway." His explanation is (p. 169), "Believing in a peculiar but deeply
meaningful creed is not unusual for a fringe religious group.... Members of the
early Christ cult were convinced Jesus had to be vindicated by their God, and
converted the disaster of his death into a reason for missionary fervor." He
summarizes (p. 172), "But it is still strange to watch Christianity dissolve
into a vapid verbiage and contempt for truth which would be more at home in a
California psychotherapy cult."
On the interchangeability of religion and
parapsychology, Edis states (p. 179), "Miracles are the tabloid underside of
religion. Tales of levitating saints and weeping statues belong with
poltergeists, spirit-summoning mediums, and psychics predicting California will
slide into the sea." He elaborates (p. 203), "For all the overheated rhetoric,
the skeptics are correct: parapsychology, like homeopathy or astrology, survives
not on the strength of its results but because of its appeal outside of the
scientific community." And one of his subheadings is Thirty-one Flavors Of
Ultimate Reality.
As for religion's pathetic attempts to harmonize an
omnipotent, omnibenevolent god with the existence of AIDS, cancer,
transportation accidents, earthquakes and religious wars, to say nothing of
urine, excrement and menstruation, Edis's observations are as good as any I have
seen before (P. 278): "After all, historically the biggest nuisance for theology
has been the need to reconcile God and evil.... Our Creator is supposed to be
morally perfect and all-powerful, and this world was the best it could manage?
... Most everyone can understand the pain of a parent who loses her child to
disease, and hear God's maddening silence in response. We need not master arcane
technical skills to see how theologians' excuses for the silence are absurd in
the face of suffering."
Edis's book says little that is new. How well he
says it, the reader can judge for himself on the basis on the quoted passages. I
see history as the only discipline capable of ultimately freeing humankind from
religion, no matter how valid philosophical arguments may be. Not everyone
agrees.
William Harwood
Reviewer
Macaire's Bookshelf
Sex Magic
Jennifer Dunne
Ellora's
Cave
MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-192-3; Mobipocket (PRC) ISBN #
1-84360-193-1
Other formats (no ISBNs): Rocketbook, HTML, Adobe, $6.49,
100,000 pages
Simon Parkes is not your ordinary, mild-mannered professor.
Actually, he's not ordinary at all! His stunning looks put him head and
shoulders above most men, but it's his extracurricular activities that are more
impressive.
Simon is a Guardian. He guards the earth from evil entities
by using magic. Beth Graham knows something is different about Professor Parkes.
He borrows such strange books from the library where she works. What could he
want with all those occult books? But one thing is clear in her mind - books or
not, she's interested in professor Parkes. So, not being shy, she invites him to
dinner. What better way to get to know someone? Beth doesn't know it yet, but
she's in for a surprise. Simon is interested in Beth, oh yes, but he's
especially interested in sex magic. On their first date, Beth and Simon make
love for hours. Beth is in heaven, convinced that she's found her perfect mate.
Simon, however, leaves in the middle of the night on a strange errand. 'Sex
Magic' is a tightly woven tale of love and magic. Simon, as one of the
Guardians, also works with the police solving occult mysteries. On the campus,
two students are found brutally murdered. The entity that Simon has been
fighting against has somehow found a breach into the world, and Simon knows he's
the only one who can stop it. He must protect Beth, who has by some means come
to the entities attention. Perhaps it has possessed one of the students who have
visited the library lately? Simon doesn't know, but he wants to keep Beth safe,
so he insists that she stays at his mansion.
The entity grows stronger
though, and more murders occur. I don't want to give anything else away, but the
story grows more fascinating with each chapter and I found myself staying up
after midnight to find out how it would turn out! I wasn't disappointed! 'Sex
Magic' is a rare combination of murder mystery, occult magic, scorching sex and
true love.
Highly recommended.
Shifting Faces
Marilyn Lee &
Elizabeth Jewell
Ellora's Cave
http://www.ellorascave.com
ISBN:
1-84360-176-1, Erotic romance rated NC-17, $6.99
Shifting Faces, an
anthology with two stories in it, starts with The Quest II, Divided Loyalties.
The story takes place on a faraway planet, somehow linked to earth. Jemi's
husband, Cody, had always believed in life after death. When he died, Jemi
continued to receive letters from him, and one directed her to an abandoned
mining town, where she met two huge, talking felines and was transported to the
Volter, another land in another dimension. Somehow, Jemi shares a body with a
princess royal, Jeroni. Jeroni is to wed a crown prince, and it is on the
journey to her new home that Jemi 'arrives' and takes over her
body.
Volter is an alien land set in the middle ages, or bronze age,
perhaps, where men fight with swords and live in simple villages. Jeroni,
princess royal, has a bodyguard, Dioni, who loves her. Jemi is in love with the
huge, talking carnivore called Hunter, who is the crown prince of Terra Tern,
another part of Volter. These great cats can shape-shift at will, becoming human
or catlike. The royal cats mate with humans, who give birth to shape-shifting
felines. Hunter has chosen Jemi as his life-long mate. And mate they do -
several times a day! This book largely deserves its NC-17 rating, for the
language is raw, the action well described, and the situations incredible.
Suffice to say that Jemi, sharing Jeroni's body, has a vagina that can contract
and expand to accommodate her feline lover's huge, foot and a half long penis,
or pleasure her human lover's more normal attributes. I had a hard time
following the story, and believe that there must be a Quest I, a first book in
the series, that would have helped keep everyone (and their lovers) straight.
It's hard to tell, for example, what really happened with Cody, or what Jemi and
Jeroni were doing together. This story is a journey to a wild society where
giant felines search for likely mates, and where humanoid women dream of
snagging the male-feline of their dreams. If you like your sex graphic and
unusual, if the idea of huge, shape shifting felines titillates your
imagination, then this sex-filled story is a must read!
The second story
in the series, A Matter of Faces, also deals with shape shifting, but it takes
place on earth, and the shape shifters are an ancient race that live among us,
and have for thousands of years. Piper is a human who meets the exact twin of
her dead lover in a bar one night. Startled, she lets herself be wooed by him,
and ends up in his apartment in bed with him. But once over her shock, she
decides not to see him again, knowing that his appearance will always cause her
pain. She doesn't realise he can change appearances, and when she does, it's too
late; they've already fallen in love. But some shape-shifters are evil and
believe that mankind should not be aware of their race. One in particular plans
to kill Piper. Luckily, her lover Trey, is there to protect her (in whatever
form it takes!) The shape shifters cannot change into animal form, but they can
change from men to women, and Piper is able to explore all the different facets
of her sexuality with just one person, Trey, who can change to fulfill her every
fantasy! Again, the rating is NC-17, so I couldn't recommend this to just
anyone. But if you are open-minded and enjoy a book hot enough to scorch your
eyeballs, this story is a fascinating tale of a relation between a human and an
alien shape shifter. This story was particularly well written, and both stories
use strong, graphic language to describe sex, never once falling into silly
euphemisms or 'purple 'prose', which is
refreshing!
Recommended
Ravenous
Sherri King
Ellora's
Cave
http://www.ellorascave.com
Erotic romance, ISBN : NA,
$TBA
Cady Swann, a human woman, has powers that enable her to fight
monsters. She feels obliged to protect her sleepy little town of Lula, Georgia
from the attacks of the ravenous beasts. At night she hunts monsters, and in the
day she's a part-time librarian. The perfect life for Cady, who lives in the
house left to her by her beloved grandparents, alone with her cat,
Squaker.
But one night she's attacked in her own house by something even
more terrifying than a monster. Obsidian, a totally gorgeous, six foot ten inch
Shiker warrior, has been assigned to find out more about Cady. Instead, he
treats her like she's a monster and attacks her. The fight is short and vicious,
but before Cady can best Obsidian, he stabs her with a white blade that shoots
out from the tip of his finger. The pain is blinding, and Cady passes out.
Obsidian heals her with his magic, and then finds out (to his chagrin) that he
was supposed to convince Cady to fight with the Shikers, and that she's not an
enemy. He has to go back and confront her again - and this time, he has to get
her on his side. Not an easy task - Cady is not one to forgive and forget.
Obsidian, being a proud, handsome warrior, is convinced she'll soften up in a
minute. Instead, he finds himself looking down the barrel of a very large gun,
held by a very angry woman.
The interaction between Cady and Obsidian
(whom she insists on calling 'Sid', much to his horror) is wonderfully funny.
They are obviously made for each other, but even as their bodies join in perfect
harmony, they manage to have epic fights, in and out of bed. Part of the problem
is that for the Shikers the human race is an inferior breed. But Cady is much
more than an ordinary human, and Obsidian soon comes to realize just how much
she means to him.
Filled with a fascinating cast of characters including
'Grimm', a Shiker transporter given to voyeurism, and Tryton, a matchmaker in
search of flaming matches, this story moves so fast it's hard to keep up! Once
started, it's impossible to put down, and the fighting blends in with the hot
and passionate lovemaking - with love winning in the end, of
course!
Highly Recommended.
Rayven's Awakening
Sherri
King
Ellora's Cave
http://www.ellorascanve.com
ISBN 1-84360-199-0,
Erotic romance, $6.49
Rayven has never felt like she belonged anywhere.
An orphan, she spent her life shuttled from one foster home to the next, never
fitting in, never finding anyone remotely like herself. Lovely, with long, black
hair and startling, golden eyes that seem to read people's minds, Rayven
disconcerts most people searching for a child to adopt. And then, two people who
love her despite her oddness adopt her and at fifteen, she finds contentment.
Her happiness is short-lived, however. The house burns down, and only a
mysterious bird helps Rayven escape the inferno. But her parents are dead. Worse
- clues seem to indicate she was the one who started the fire!
Arrested
and convicted on trumped-up charges, Rayven lands in prison - but not for long.
Using her will power, she bids the jailer to open her door and he does. She
walks free, but then spends many years in hiding, while the police search for
her. While free, Rayven finds she has other powers. Powers that range from
exceptional strength to the ability to see into people's minds and sense their
emotions from a great distance. But all this has no meaning for her. Instead,
she only longs for a place to call home - a place where she can feel at
home.
Far away, in another galaxy, General Karis rages at his minions.
For years they have hunted the elusive woman called Rayven, and yet she remains
unfound. In desperation, he hires a Monabi psychic bounty hunter to track her,
and sends him to earth with his soldiers. Karis must capture Rayven - his life
and rule as dictator depend upon destroying her - or worse.
Rayven is not
human. She is a member of a once mighty race called The Aware, who used to live
on the planet of Nye. General Karis, using the might of the Galactic Communal
Army, destroyed the planet and massacred the Aware. Every last one of them had
been killed. Except one - a little girl whose parents managed to send to a
distant planet, earth. The girl's parents hadn't been just anyone - she was the
daughter of Empress and the Emperor of Nye, and future leader of her people.
Hah! What people? He'd destroyed them all! All? Well, not quite. A few escaped
and now lived on a beautiful hidden planet, Hostis. Their numbers being few and
their main concern is procreation. But they need the powers of two leaders
joined in marriage to ensure fertility for the whole race. Draco, their male
leader, must find Rayven and marry her. Using his powers, he saves her from the
ignoble General Karis and brings her to Hostis.
Rayven finds herself
suddenly at the head of a strange and powerful race of people. But there are
some problems. She was raised on earth, where it's considered rude to make love
at the dinner table. On Hostis, the Aware copulate anywhere, anytime, much to
Rayven's embarrassment. And worse - they expect her to throw herself into
Draco's arms. But she won't! Draco may be incredibly handsome and seductive -
he's also overbearing, insufferable and is trying to teach her all she has to
know about using her powers to save their people. Rayven is caught in the middle
of a maelstrom, and to make things worse - General Karis has raised another army
and is on his way. Will he succeed in destroying the Aware once and for all?
Read Rayven's Awakening, and find out! This book will take you on a fascinating
voyage to another planet where you'll find yourself high in the beautiful Neffin
trees, lit by twinkling emalaya vines, where Rayven must face her
destiny.
Highly Recommended.
Born To Fly
Becky
Barker
Ellora's Cave
http://www.ellorascave.com
ISBN: 1-84360-155-9,
Erotic Romance, $5.95
Sharla is a triplet - she and her two sisters share
lovely blue eyes and honey blond hair. They also share the family business -
Prescott Air Service - and they are all pilots. Her newest job is flying Reed
Conner from one city to another.
Reed Conner! Sharla can't stand him.
He's always rubbed her the wrong way for some reason. His golden brown eyes seem
to criticise her every time he gazes at her. He's not tall, but incredibly well
-built. Sharla can't help reacting to his presence, even while she wishes he
were somewhere else! But he's not - he's right next to her in her small
plane.
Reed Conner is an FBI agent, and his mission is a delicate one.
He's acting as a decoy guarding a witness, and the US Marshals and several other
FBI agents are involved. He doesn't want to get Sharla in any trouble, but
someone breaks into her hotel room the first night, and Reed thinks that now his
cover is blown and she may be in danger. He feels he has to protect Sharla, but
her curvaceous body wrecks havoc on him. Each time she gets near him he goes
into sensory overload.
Then they run into more trouble - Sharla is forced
to make an emergency landing in a storm. Luckily, Reed knows of an airstrip and
a deserted cabin. Sharla has suffered a bump on the head, but otherwise is all
right. Neither is thrilled about being stuck with the other. Sharla because she
can't stand Reed, and Reed because Sharla's sexy body is driving him
crazy.
The sexual tension climbs to the stratosphere as they spend the
next few days alone together. Of course, I won't ruin the ending - suffice to
say the author has taken romance rules to heart and cooked up a steamy love
story! If you like form romance, with macho heroes, spunky heroines and lots of
sexual tension and graphic sex, then this book is for
you.
Recommended.
Jennifer Macaire,
Reviewer
http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/Iskander
Roger's Bookshelf
Recruit Smarter, Not Harder
Mel Kleiman
& Brent Kleiman
HTG Press
8300 Bissonnet, Suite 490, Houston, Texas
77074
ISBN 1893214044, $15.95, trade paperback, 177 pages
Have you
read Eli Goldratt's "The Goal?" How about other business novels that read like a
story, but teach valuable business lessons? "Recruit Smarter, Not Harder" is one
of those instructive tales. The lesson is about recruiting the best hourly
employees, a message that is vital to today's employers. The setting is a
grocery retailer, but could easily apply to any organization employing hourly
workers.
The key to success today is recruiting, hiring, and retaining
top talent. Competition for top talent will intensify as the economy heats up
again, so now is the time to learn the lessons of this book . . . and apply
them. Human resources professionals, small company owners, managers, and
supervisors will all benefit from this quick read.
There are many lessons
in this book including "A Marketing Approach to Recruiting, Jobseeker Profiles,
Job Analysis, Attracting Applicants, Sources of Applicants, and Managing
Turnover. Appendices on the authors' Magnetic Company philosophy and tactics add
value to the book, as do the summaries at the end of each chapter.
Lots
of helpful, practical knowledge packed into a story that's easy and enjoyable to
read. The lessons almost sneak up on you as you read the interesting tale. Good
balance between fiction and moral.
Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake:
Practicing The Perfections Of The Heart; The Buddhist Path Of Kindness
Sylvia
Boorstein
Ballantine Books
ISBN 0345448103, $24.95, hardcover, 284
pages
In all fairness to my readers, I must begin this review by telling
you that I typically review business books. This is not a business book. I'm not
sure how I got it, but somehow this unusual (for me) book appeared on my shelf
of books to review. I took it along on a business trip, more out of curiosity
and whimsy than a particular interest in actually reading the book. On the
airplane, for some reason, I decided to skim through "Pay Attention, for
Goodness Sake" instead of reading a business book I'd also brought
along.
This read was refreshing. Good word. It was a refreshing change of
pace from my usual fare. But, it was also re-freshing, if I may hyphenate for
emphasis. Sylvia Boorstein, both a Jew and a Bhuddist, has written a number of
books. Thought I haven't read them, I suspect, like this one, they teach in a
conversational, comfortable way. I learned and found some interesting comfort as
I read through these pages, like having an interesting discussion with someone
who knows more than you do. You want to listen. As I turned page to page, I
found myself held to the book. I wanted to read a little more and a little
more.
This is a thoughtful book, describing ten "paramitas" or
perfections. The organization and flow of the book makes it easy to grasp the
author's message and organize it in your own mind. The introduction explains the
concepts and their application. Each "perfection" or practices is presented in
its own chapter: Generosity, Morality, Renunciation, Wisdom, Energy, Patience,
Truthfulness, Determination, Lovingkindness, and Equanimity. I would describe
the work as an instructional guide that inspires the reader to think . . . no,
to ponder.
This is not a business book in the customary classification of
books, but I'd certainly recommend it for current and aspiring business leaders.
We all need to pay attention more than we are; we miss so much in today's
rush-rush world. Take time to reflect, to ponder. Refresh yourself with this
book.
Patagonia: At the Bottom of the World
Dick Lutz
Dimi
Press
3820 Oak Hollow Lane, SE, Salem, OR 97302-4774
ISBN 0931625386,
$18.95, Trade paperback, 206 pages
What's a Patagonia? It's a region of
the world, rather than a country. Located at the southern tip of South America,
it spans portions of both Chile and Argentina. A many-faceted environment, it is
closer to Antarctica . . . complete with penguins, glaciers, and much, much
more.
Author Dick Lutz, a veteran of three previous nature/travel books,
takes us on a delightful journey of this little-known region. The first chapter
is a sort of journal of his experience on a guided tour, reporting one adventure
after another. Throughout the chapter are references to later chapters for
detail on what Lutz has seen and experienced on the tour. Just reading the first
chapter alone will be a worthwhile education, but there's so much more to this
book.
The following four chapters deliver a considerable amount of
information to the reader. You could never even ask all the questions that are
answered in these pages. Chapters on the environment, history, native groups,
and Patagonia today are chock-full of information that makes for fascinating
reading. The environment chapter explores a wide range of facts, including the
wildlife, terrain, and climate. The now-extinct Patagonian Indians are described
in Chapter 4, while Chapter 5 explains the current situation in this sparsely
populated region governed by two nations.
A long appendix of Darwin's
1834 treatise of his experience in the area, as written in "Voyage of the
Beagle," is included as an appendix, amplifying the stories of sailors'
experiences around Cape Horn. A bibliography, seven color photos, and index add
extra value to this intriguing book.
If you're interested in visiting the
region (I am now) or just want to learn about it, this book will be an enjoyable
eye-opener. Well-researched, well-written.
The Innovator's
Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen
Harper Business
ISBN 0066620694, $16.00,
trade paperback, 287 pages
If a business does things the right way and
invested in new technologies, would you not expect them to succeed? If they
introduced new products that could really make a difference in the marketplace,
should they not be rewarded with a strong market leader position? Is not
innovation the key to a great future?
If the technology is "disruptive"
to the point that it is initially rejected by mainstream customers, great firms
could fail miserably. Too much change, apparently, is not good. Huh?
As
Christensen, a Harvard professor, explains it, "Most new technologies foster
improved product performance. I call these sustaining technologies. Some
sustaining technologies can be discontinuous or radical in character, while
others are of an incremental nature. What all sustaining technologies have in
common is that they improve the performance of established products, along the
dimensions of performance that mainstream customers in major markets have
historically valued." "Disruptive technologies bring to market a very different
value proposition than had been available previously." Aha, it's the type of
change. Well, that's part of the story. There's much more.
The first part
of this book explains why great companies can fail. Examples are provided to
help the reader understand how innovation can, in fact, cause problems instead
of improvements. The second part of the book, much longer, explores how to
manage disruptive technological change. Readers will learn how to give
responsibility for disruptive technologies to organizations whose customers need
them (the right provider makes a difference), how to match the organization size
to the market size, and how to appraise your organization's capabilities and
disabilities.
A valuable feature of the book is a summary that can serve
as a guide or
executive summary. The strong index helps, too.
Work
Worldwide: International Career Strategies For The Adventurous Job
Seeker
Nancy Mueller
John Muir Publications
ISBN 1562614908, $14.95,
Trade paperback. 232 pages.
If working in another country is in your
career plans, you will find a treasure chest of valuable and important
information in this book. Author Nancy Mueller is a recognized global career
expert. It's obvious as you read these pages that this woman knows what she's
talking about. What a resource to have for your international
experience.
Some Americans who work in other countries do so by choice;
others are assigned to overseas posts by their employers. This book works well
for both situations, though it begins with lots of advice for people who are
driving their own career choices. The introduction and the first couple of
chapters are designed for people who are making this exciting decision on their
own. The big question about how to find work abroad is fully explored to help
you make educated decisions. Those first two chapters are Get Started---Focus
and Get the Facts---Research.
Chapter 3 advises Get Connected---Network!
Lots of dos and don'ts here, supplemented by an appendix listing the American
Chamber of Commerce offices in other countries. Chapter 4: Get Support---Ask.
Chapter 5---Prepare. See the pattern? Chapter by chapter, this book helps you
get your act together for the idiosyncrasies of global work and life. You'll
learn how to prepare your resume for international job-seeking, how to conduct
interviews, how to follow-up, and even warnings about what kinds of mistakes to
avoid.
Chapter 7 will help you navigate through the jungle of visas, work
permits, and an international work contract. You'll learn about compensation,
how to get ready for the move, and how to prepare for culture shock. Chapter 8,
Acculturate, will give you a good lesson in etiquette, social customs, and even
a set of social profiles country-by-country about some of the places you're most
likely to go. Wherever you go, you'll probably come back . . . and that's not as
easy as you might think. Chapter 9 will guide you through the readjustment. This
is a good chapter to read during your decision-making process. Anticipating the
return, is this really something you want to do?
Yes, at this point in
the book, you'll still have questions. That's why you'll be delighted to see
that chapter 10 starts with Frequently Asked Questions. You'll find all kinds of
tips in this chapter that will deepen your understanding of the adventure that
lies before you.
Extra value is provided by the appendices and index.
You'll get a good reading list, internet resources, and even a list of foreign
embassies in Washington, D.C.
If you're considering working abroad, read
this book . . . with a highlighter handy!
Good Fat, Bad Fat: How To Lower
Your Cholesterol And Reduce The Odds Of A Heart Attack
William P. Castelli,
MD and Glen C. Griffin, MD
Fisher Books
c/o Perseus Books Group
Eleven
Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
ISBN: 1555611176, $14.00, trade
paperback, 1-800-242-7737
This book was recommended by my cardiologist.
After a good scare, remedied with a stent, doc suggested I drop some weight and
alter my diet. I nodded respectfully, stuck the book in the drawer in my
nightstand, and forgot it. In spite of my good eating intentions, my weight kept
climbing. Not good. Hmmm, maybe I ought to take a look at that book. Probably a
waste of time; I've never been able to understand all that nutrition stuff
anyway.
Well, I got a bit of a surprise as I opened this book and started
reading. My interest was captured pretty quickly, something I didn't expect. The
book is conversational---and understandable! I'll share a few items from the
opening Helpful Information summary on page 3: Saturated fats are bad fats.
Trans-fatty acids are also bad fats, but you won't find them listed on nutrition
labels. Healthy people should limit their intake of bad fat to 20 grams a day.
Folks like me should restrict their consumption to 10 grams a day. Uh
oh.
The more I read, the more I learned. I know a lot more now about the
things I should not be eating . . . if I want to keep my arteries clear and
avoid another heart problem. I'll confess that reading this book changed my
eating habits. I had been eating food that I thought was good for me, or at
least acceptable. Boy, did I get some surprises! My sensitivity to saturated
fat, cholesterol, triglycerides, and other problems is significantly enhanced.
And I can understand why the authors are saying!
The second half of the
book is comprised of recipes, low-fat, low-cholesterol recipes for appetizers,
soups, salads, breads, beans, vegetables, fish, and much more. This section is a
really nice feature to help readers put their new knowledge to work. An
advertising note on the back cover proclaims, "This book can save your life!"
Believe it. Healthy or not, read this one.
Ask The Right Questions. Hire
The Best People
Ron Fry
Career Press
ISBN 1564144143, $14.99, Trade
Paperback, 221 pages
Interviewing job candidates is not as easy as it
looks. And in today's world, with legal constraints and applicants driving
interviews, the process is certainly different than in the past. This book
offers some good practical tactical advice for interviewers, presenting the
information in a way that's easy to grasp. This ease of understanding is vitally
important for department heads and other people who now participate in
sequential or shared interview experiences. If you don't interview applicants
every day, you just don't know this information.
Fry has written other
books on this topic---from the applicant's perspective. He's the author of the
strong-selling "101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions." It's
interesting to watch him play both sides of the table like this whole hiring
process is like a grand game of chess.
But, hiring people is not a game.
It's serious business. To hire the right people, you have to ask the right
questions. It's important to understand what the answers are telling you and how
your questions and the applicant's answers guide your hiring
decisions.
The Table of Contents is sparse. It really doesn't help the
reader determine where to find things in the book. Fortunately, there is a
somewhat helpful index that can assist, but that's going backward. The book
begins with some preliminary information about job advertising and resume
screening. Chapter 2 explores interview styles including telephone interviews,
team interviews, behavioral interviews, and stress interviews. Next, the reader
is instructed about what to look for in the interview, then comes the interview
process itself. Various categories of questions are presented, with suggestions
of good answers (represented by the green light graphic) and not-so-good answers
(represented by the red light graphic). This pattern begins on page 72 and
continues through the balance of the book. I felt a sense of too much of a
pattern, like an assembly line process, in the presentation of the information,
though there is value in the advice that is shared.
Chapter 11, Staying
Out of the Legal Cauldron, may be one of the most valuable chapters of the book.
It contains several pages of questions that interviewers are NOT allowed to ask
by law. In those organizations (most?) that have supervisors and potential
co-workers interview applicants, this information is vital to
impart.
Deliberate Success: Realize Your Vision With Purpose, Passion,
And Performance
Eric Allengaugh, PhD
Career Press
ISBN 1564146170,
$24.99, Hardcover, 288 pages
"Achieving success is not an accident; it
results from a deliberate process of identifying a compelling purpose,
passionately pursuing your vision, preparing for high level outcomes, and
performing at your best." Thus we being our journey with a seasoned (two
decades) executive coach, professional speaker, and consultant in peak
performance. The author is a proven expert in his field-a specialty that has
enduring value for individuals, teams, and organizations.
The book-full
of advice and counsel that would cost you thousands in a personal
consultation-is organized into five strategies. The strategies are Direction,
Culture, Empowerment, Coaching, and Renewal. Each strategy is presented as a
section of the book, with three or four chapters on each category. Two special
features add value to this book: an abundance of relevant quotes throughout the
book and cameo contributions from thirteen fairly well-known authors and
executives. A bibliography and index round out the book.
Under Direction,
Allenbaugh shows readers how to link purpose and passion with performance.
Chapters focus on creating a compelling mission and vision, linking into your
passion, and implementing your vision. The Culture section describes how to
sustain a results-oriented, customer-focused climate-valuable for individuals as
well as organizations. The three chapters illuminate various aspects of culture,
including the importance of values. The Empowerment section focuses on releasing
human potential. There are several insightful chapters on empowering people,
honoring the differences among people, and hiring winners by using Attitude,
Aptitude, and Alignment as filters.
The coaching section addresses
building others' success, effective expression and listening skills, and a focus
on results. The last portion of the book explores the "3 Rs of Renewal: Release,
Reaffirm, and Reinvent." Chapters on individual renewal and organizational
renewal contribute useful perspectives.
Easy-to-read book for
individuals, managers, business owners, consultants, and those charged with the
responsibility (and opportunity) of coaching others to deliberate
success.
This is a good how-to book, enjoyable and enlightening as a
read-through and worthwhile as a reference when you need a
re-focus.
Valuing People: How Human Capital Can Be Your Strongest
Asset
Lisa M. Aldisert
Dearborn Publishing
ISBN 0793150159, $27.00,
Hardcover, 230 pages
With the increasing shortage of qualified skilled
labor, concern for human capital has grown. Major consulting firms have
established whole departments around the concept, much has been written, and
there's even a magazine called "Human Capital."
We used to talk about
"personnel," then the term shifted to "human resources." The same thing, but
different words? No. The human resources concept is more broad, more
comprehensive, and hopefully more strategic. So what's the difference with this
newer term of "human capital?" This concept emphasizes measurement---measuring
the value of people to their employing organization. The human capital value
doesn't show up on the balance sheet, at least not yet, like other forms of
capital. Investors, however, are paying more attention to concerns like staffing
levels, worker competency, employee performance, and workforce
stability.
Interestingly, while chief human resource officers typically
have strong relationships with their chief executive officers, their least
effective relationships are with chief financial officers. These results from a
recent survey of senior HR executives was quite revealing, demonstrating that
human capital valuation has not yet reached all those who should be concerned
about it. This book will help. It's written for people who have responsibility
for generating revenue, increasing profitability, or enhancing
productivity.
The author, a nationally-known consultant and speaker in
the field of strategic growth and leadership development, marries the two
concepts well in these pages. She starts with The Strategic Importance of Human
Capital with three chapters that do a fine job of positioning, education, and
stimulating thought. Each chapter is recapped with a summary of key ideas and
thinking points. Just flipping to the of each chapter and reading these pages
will give you your money's worth from this volume. These chapters cover the
broad spectrum of relevant trends and issue to give readers insight into the
"why" as well as the "what."
Part Two, Measuring Human Capital, provides
an in-depth survey of the measurements being used to value employees today, as
well as the organizations that are engaged in this work. In spite of a brief
section on moving from theory to practice on page 81, the author does not
present any specific recommendations about which process should be
used.
Part Three shifts to How to Develop Human Potential in the Firm.
The more modern concepts are presented here: attracting talent, developing
employees, virtual capital, building leadership, and looking at human capital as
an investment in the organization. As an appendix, Aldisert offers her Valuing
People AuditSM. It's a check-off list with a 5-point Likert scale exploring how
much attention is given to issues that affect the people side of the business.
Thus, the book explores well the concept of valuing human capital, but does not
definitively provide a step-by-step specific method. There isn't a standard yet,
but this book builds the understanding that could provide a platform for such
development. First, corporate executives need to understand the concept of
valuing their employees as human capital. This book will certainly
help.
Good notes section and strong index.
Skill Wars: Winning The
Battle For Productivity And Profit
Edward E.
Gordon
Butterworth-Heinemann
ISBN 0750672072, $24.99, Trade paperback, 339
pages
America-and the world-face a serious, probably debilitating
shortage of skilled workers. Oh, there are plenty of people out there, most of
whom want to work. However, if they don't have the skills that are in demand by
employers, their work opportunities and career futures are limited. Employers
will compete to attract and hold the people with the skills to get the job done.
Savvy workers will compete to acquire and market skills that will be in demand
and that will make them unique and marketable in the world of work. Many will do
well. Other employers and workers will not fare so well, changing the face of
employment.
This book addresses a wide range of topics, organized into
three sections: Measuring Human Capital Development, Reports from the Firing
Line: Improving Productivity and Performance, and Developing People. The content
is not directed just toward educators or professionals in the field of training
and development. It is more broad-based. As explained by the author in his
introduction, "For the business person, "Skill Wars" is a policy book about
managing and measuring workplace performance and profit. For the union leader
and employee, "Skill Wars" is about employability and personal growth. For
parents, "Skill Wars" is about their children's future careers and guaranteed
participation in "the American Dream." For politicians and government leaders,
"Skill Wars" is a blueprint for what new voters are beginning to demand in every
state across America: new laws to create a more knowledgeable workforce. For
educators and trainers, "Skill Wars" offers new ideas on how to better
collaborate with all these groups and create innovative, diverse curricula,
whether in a schoolroom or the corporate classroom."
Ninety figures
illustrate the book, accompanying the text to illuminate the concepts delivered
on page after page by Edward Gordon, PhD, a consultant specializing in
human/intellectual capital for over two decades. His teaching experience at
DePaul, Loyola, and Northwestern Universities complement his work as a
consultant, writer, and speaker. Gordon certainly has the credibility and
background to write this important book.
You will bob your head up and
down in agreement as you read this book. You'll also shake your head in
disbelief and amazement as you realize how far behind we are-how much remains to
be done. Gordon cites the numbers, concentrating on the ROI: the Return on
Investment in building skills and capacity. The research has been done on this
book, as evidenced by the number of footnotes offering bibliographical
references. The pages are packed with information.
The final chapter,
Investing in Human Capital: A Blueprint for the 21st Century, is particularly
powerful . . . and should be carefully considered by everyone in a position to
help build the skill base that will be needed. And that's all of us. Gordon
warns that "The gap between the so-called 'knowledge workers' and low skilled
workers is widening at an alarming rate." Why is the gap growing? "Because too
many businesses are engaged in an act of financial levitation, trying to make
bigger and bigger stacks of money from companies that are barely growing. Their
magic act centers on cost-cutting, squeezing staffs, slashing training,
eliminating everything except their 'core business operations.' The predominant
American management philosophy of the 1990s has been that business exists only
to drive up stock prices and enrich shareholders."
As we've seen in
recent months, this strategy has been damaging, to say the least. More sensitive
employers are creating life-work balanced environments, demonstrating
stewardship for the world around us, and taking other steps to correct and
improve our corporate society. "Skill Wars" should stimulate more serious
efforts to build workforce competencies or all the other efforts will be
smoke-and-mirrors and fa‡ade.
More people need to read this book.
Now.
Thrival! How To Have An Above Average Day Every Day
Dr. Paul O.
Radde
Pathligher Press
1500 Riverside Drive, Suite 810, Austin, Texas
78741
ISBN 0902587214, $25.00, hardcover, 300 pages
Paul Radde is an
international keynote speaker, executive coach, and organizational consultant
with a PhD in psychology and community counseling. His career includes 25 years
as a practicing psychologist. Over a lifetime, Radde has studied human behavior,
observing that most people simply survive, not thrive. They don't really relish
life at its fullest. His practice-and this book-are a sort of a mission to help
people really maximize their lives.
Radde's concern is that "Very few
people seem to be living in a thriving space, or letting on that they are, if
indeed they are. One percent currently derive the richest experience of, and
full enjoyment from, their lives." The balance are Committed Seekers (35%),
Going About Their Daily Lives (40%), or Think Thriving is a Forbidden Fruit
(24%). So, the focus of his book "is on this exceptional state of well-being
called thriving . . . an experience of lightness, expansiveness, and exceptional
well-being: the precise exceptional moments of well-being that many people say
make life worth living."
The book is organized into three parts: Defining
Thriving and Thrival, Getting Started on Your Path to Thriving, and Rules &
Guidelines to Access Thriving. The twenty chapters range from Life Can Be Better
to Entering the Thrival Era, Opening Yourself Up, Five Things You Can Control,
and Meet Your Essential Need for Balance. The third section of the book includes
three rules and seven guidelines for thriving and a guide to getting it all
together. A recommended reading list expands the reader's opportunity to
learn.
This book is a first-person sharing and caring that opens into a
sort of conversation, a discussion about the topic. Readers will nod,
contemplate, and perhaps make adjustments in their lives to reach closer to
Radde's thrival state. For those who would like a sort of personal experience
with an introspective psychologist and close observer of life, this book will be
very enjoyable. For those who don't desire to really get in touch with their
inner selves, this is not the time for you to read this book.
Capture The
Rapture: How To Step Out Of Your Head And Leap Into Your Life
Marcia
Reynolds
Hathor Hill Press
Post Office Box 5012, Scottsdale, AZ
85261
ISBN 0965525007, $16.95, Trade Paperback, 237 pages
"Capture the
Rapture." What kind of a title is that? A watercolor landscape on the front
cover against a background of a sort of light blue that seems to say "I'm not
really blue." This must be one of those touchy-feely woo-woo books about finding
God in your life, written by a housewife with nothing else to do. A friend gave
me the book, suggesting that as a book reviewer I might be
interested.
Get real. Most of the books I review are business books.
Solid stuff written by people with credentials, a right to convey an important
message to others. Some of the books I review are self-published; other are
produced by major royalty publishers. I look for what I call "worthiness." Is
this book worthy of my time and attention and, more importantly, is it worth the
time and attention of people who trust my reviews.
With the above
statements in mind, you can understand how I approached "Capture the Rapture." I
started with the acknowledgements page. (Yes, I actually read this stuff!). The
page begins "It has been twenty-five years since Vicki, my cellmate and soulmate
." Whoa! "Cellmate?" Who is this?
Chapter 1. The author trots off to
elementary school and proves herself to be a high achieving, outspoken,
well-liked kid. Proud of her academic and social achievement, she goes on to
high school where she encounters a much different culture: sports and drugs. She
excelled in this environment, too, to the extent that two years after graduation
she found herself in the county jail for six months. Whew! This kid's on a
downhill slope to nowhere. Nope. Read her story.
Marcia Reynolds
graduated summa cum laude from college, earned two masters degrees, moved up in
the corporate world, and established her own business. She's a Master Certified
Coach, professional speaker, and a former president of the International Coach
Federation. If you're thinking, "Wow, if she's done all that, I'll bet she could
teach me something!"
You will learn a lot in this three-part book: The
Pleasure of Being, Venturing into the Vertical World, and Capture the Rapture.
Chapters like Strengthening Your Foundation, Visioning and Covisioning, The
Possibility Game open your thinking and stimulate your mind and heart. Chapters
on Rapture at Work, at Play, and in Relationships deliver ideas, guidance, and
inspiration. The book is practical, deliberately helpful, and hard to put down.
Your own personal coach will emerge from the pages to enable you to move to the
next level in your life.
Marcia Reynolds is an outstanding example of
"been there, done that." Her book reflects that power, experience, love, and
support. Well worth the investment of your time and attention.
One-Day
MBA In Marketing: A Complete Education For The Busy Professional
Michael
Muckian
Prentice Hall Press
240 Frisch Court, Paramus, NJ 07652
ISBN
0735202079, $35.00, Hardcover, 316 pages, 1-800-631-8571
Increasing
emphasis is placed on marketing in today's competitive world. Getting the word
out to the right market in the right way is crucial to success. If the right
people learn about the product or service at the right time, in a way they can
accept and believe, there is a good chance they will buy. And that's the
principal objective. Marketing exists so sales can be made. That's why I got
warm feeling when I discovered that this book has two chapters on selling. But
marketing can be expensive and corporate executives want to understand what
campaigns will cost and what kind of return on investment they can expect.
There's a chapter on budgeting.
This is an impressive book. It covers a
lot of material and organizes it well. Twenty-one chapters and an index. Don't
believe the title, though. It's going to take you more than a day to get through
this book. There's just so much there! Very complete. Note: This is the kind of
book that serves as a great reference work as well as a cover-to-cover
read.
The author begins with a chapter on some of the basics of
marketing, then launches into the importance of knowing your market and
understanding positioning and branding. Chapter 4 addresses creating marketing
plans, which, amazingly, isn't covered sufficiently in the real college courses.
Creative thinking is explored, then cleverly connected to strategic planning.
Music to my ears--someone who actually understands that marketing creativity has
to actually do something to produce strategic results, or it's
useless.
Skill-focused chapters enable readers to learn about
copywriting, design, and working with an advertising agency. The chapter on
product launch even includes discussion on business life cycles. Public
relations is covered in two chapters, including one specifically addressing the
all-important media relations. A discussion on demographics is followed by a
couple of chapters about on-line marketing.
The book design is helpful.
Large enough type and enough white space to make it very readable. The language
of the text also helps-interesting, flows well, appropriate stories.
For
executives, business owners, marketers needing new perspectives and
reinforcement, and for students, this book is a treasure.
22 Keys To
Creating A Meaningful Workplace
Tom Terez
Adams Media Corporation.
ISBN
1580622666, $24.95, Hardcover, 288 pages.
Highly recommended for bosses
and workers, this book was a delightful surprise. I expected to read yet another
business book directed solely toward owners, executives, and managers. This
specialized audience will gain quite a lot from this book, but so will "ordinary
employees." 22 Keys is an Everyman's book, written in a tone that encourages
focused initiative by all sorts of readers. Not only does this approach add
value to the book, it makes it much more salable in bulk to companies interested
in changing their work environment.
Corporate culture has been defined as
"what it feels like to work here." Terez has captured what people are looking
for in today's work environment in his exploration of what it takes to create a
meaningful workplace. Before going any further, it's important to list the 22
Keys. As you read this list, pause at each one and think about how it relates to
your personal situation. Purpose, Direction, Relevance, Validation, Respect,
Equality, Informality, Flexibility, Ownership, Challenge, Invention, Support,
Personal Development, Dialogue, Relationship Building, Service, Acknowledgement,
Oneness, Self-Identity, Fit, Balance, and Worth.
Each key is presented in
a chapter heavily seasoned with vignettes that hold the reader's attention. Not
all the stories have happy endings, making this book even more valuable. It's
not a quick-and-easy-guide-to-Nirvana, but is a realistic presentation.
Questions challenge the reader's thinking and, hopefully, stimulate behavior.
Actions by others are described to build a sense of confidence that the reader
can also do these things and make a difference.
The book has a number of
features that increase its readability and usefulness. Reality checks at the end
of each chapter focus the reader's attention. Did you get the
message?
Quotations, liberally sprinkled throughout the book, stimulate
thought. I felt the author could have done with a few less quotes, but that's a
very minor issue. One of the pages I turned down (there were many) marks a quote
by Albert Einstein: "Not everything that can be counted counts, but not
everything that counts can be counted." When we're all looking to measure our
performance, yet at the same time achieve life-work balance, the quote is
meaningful. Ah! Meaningful. The objective of the book:
well-achieved.
This book will be around for a while. It fits comfortably
with what needs to be done in the world of work-in the private sector, in
government, in non-profits, in education. If it isn't on your shelf yet, now is
the time to get a copy, read it, and share it.
Life Is Not Work. Work Is
Not Life: Simple Reminders For Finding Balance In A 24-7 World
Robert K.
Johnston and J. Walker Smith
Wildcat Canyon Press
2719 Ninth Street,
Berkeley, CA 94710
ISBN 1885171545, $13.95, Softcover, 237 pages.
We
live in a rush-rush world filled with a myriad of activities that demand our
time and challenge our priorities. More and more people are talking about
balance, life-work balance. A theologian and a corporate executive (a nice
balance in itself) got together and wrote a little book that may bring you some
serenity and perspective.
Life is Not Work is one of those little books
you often see next to the cash register in book stores or gift shops. An impulse
buy. Except this one is more expensive at $13.95.
It offers more than
just little quotations, though. The little essays, personal stories, make this
book a cross between a quote book and a Chicken Soup for the Soul
volume.
The authors bring us 137 of these short, easy-to-read essays,
organized into twenty categories. Listing the categories will give you a sense
of the content you'll discover: Balance, Time, Work, Living, Play, Spirituality,
Wholeness, Empowerment, Strength, Joy, Stress, Materialism, Repose, Wonder,
Nurture, Happiness, Authenticity, Integrity, Community, and Fulfillment. Have I
whetted your appetite? Consider the background and perspective of the authors
and slide into your easy chair to think about the balance in your life.
Forewords from the authors will help you understand who they are and where
they're "coming from." A bibliography completes the book, giving the reader an
extra sense of connection to the messages and their sources.
This book
will rest comfortably, waiting for its next opportunity, next to the bed in our
family's guest room. Be my guest. Read this book gently and contemplate your
life-work balance.
The 2,000 Percent Solution
Donald Mitchell, Carol
Coles, Robert Metz
AMACOM
ISBN 0814404766, $24.95, hardcover, 258
pages
One of my all-time favorite books is Eliahu Goldratt's "The Goal."
As a Certified Management Consultant, I have often recommended the book and its
concept of discovering bottlenecks, eliminating them, and moving forward to
greater accomplishment. That's the theme of this book, as well, so I was excited
about delving into the content. I wasn't disappointed at all.
Turning to
the Table of Contents, I was concerned that there were only two sections in the
book. Somehow, I expected more. Two sections: Free Your Organization from
Mind-Forged Manacles and A Stallbuster's Guide in Eight Steps. Hmmm. Is it that
easy? The foreword: "The book's fundamental premise is that no matter how
successful your organization is, it is performing way below its easily
achievable potential." Whew! Then the authors assert that complacency is the
primary reason for the frustrating gap between achievement and potential.
Complacency? I want to read more. That feeling crept in throughout the book: I
want to read more.
The design of the book makes it easy to read. It
flows. The authors tell us story after story to illustrate their points.
Chapters full of thought-provoking stories. And each chapter starts with an
italicized paragraph to help the reader understand the chapter and its
importance. The chapters are organized into short sections which make it easy to
get the gist and the point. It's like participating in a lively conversation
with others who have "been there, done that." You'll learn from a treasure chest
of experiences. An afterword will help get you started by suggesting specific
tasks to accomplish. The book is indexed, as well.
Stallbusting. The
authors contend that there are all sorts of things that cause stalls. Stall.
Dictionary definition: to come to a standstill. When that happens, organizations
get bogged down, don't make progress, and don't achieve their goalsor potential.
In page after page, you will understand what may be getting in your way, pick up
ideas, and be inspired to take action to make a difference. Happily, the book is
practical, not theoretical, so it will be well-read and well-used. After
completing the book, I envision that readers will venture forth to combat stalls
and build much more productive organizations. Stallbusters could be the
corporate version of the popular film, Ghostbusters. Read, learn, and go get
'em!
Strategic Staffing: A Practical Toolkit For Workforce
Planning
Thomas P. Bechet
AMACOM
ISBN 0-8144-0728-5, $79.95, Hardcover.
336 pages.
As corporate leaders look into the future, developing
strategic plans, human resources must be a vital component. Without people, most
organizations would be unable to meet their objectives, pay their bills, and
satisfy their owners. Many corporations have difficulty getting properly
organized and filling positions with the right people even in present-day terms.
Looking into the future, even a few months into the future, is beyond the scope
of most human resource departments. They're too busy scrambling to address
current problems.
There are three components necessary for solid
strategic staffing-the planning for the company's future workforce needs. First,
you need a CEO and senior leadership team that is future-focused. These key
people must be good planners, with concern about all the resources they will
need in the years ahead-including people. Second, you need human resource
professionals who can business-speak, who can understand the strategic plans
being drawn by those top executives. These professionals must be able to
determine what kinds of people will be needed-when, where, and why. Third, you
need a good tool to forecast workforce supply and demand, be flexible in
response to changing plans, and be highly usable. "Strategic Staffing" is that
tool.
Written by a human resource strategist with decades of experience
under his belt, this book has it all-in writing and on an accompanying CD-ROM.
Included in the easy-to-read pages are forms, examples, and diagnostics to help
readers evaluate their own workforce strategies and preparedness. The CD-ROM
includes templates, graphs, formulas, Excel spreadsheets, and even slide
presentations to convey the vital message to others in the
organization.
The book is organized into four sections: Setting the
Context, Developing the Strategic Staffing Process, Implementing and Supporting
Your Strategic Staffing Process, and Beyond Staffing Plans: Analyzing and
Applying the Results. Three Appendices add more value, addressing frequently
asked questions and providing guidance to using the extra material on the
CD-ROM. A glossary and an index contribute to the usefulness of the
volume.
The sixteen chapters of the book are well-defined, enabling the
reader to work from the Table of Contents to move to sections where help might
be found for specific problems. Readers will learn about how to make strategic
staffing a part of the organization, how to define staffing levels, and how to
make the whole thing work. Included are chapters about how to involve other
mangers (buy-in is important) and how to use the web for staff acquisition over
the long term. Solid costing information brings a cold sense of reality to the
picture. The cost of not doing what this book advises can be considerably higher
than following the author's helpful guidelines.
Bonus: The book's type
size and design makes it easy to read and work with.
Transforming
Work
Patricia E. Boverie and Michael Kroth
Persues Publishing
ISBN
0738205060, $30.00, Trade Paperback, 221 pages
This book is one of a
series on New Perspectives in Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change.
The series is designed to showcase current theory and practice in human
resources and organizational development. While there are practitioners on the
editorial board, this looks like more of an academic series. I'd describe this
publication as one for professionals, but a volume that individuals can benefit
from, as well.
The focus of this book is passionate work. This concept
will be difficult for many readers, since passion is emotion and emotion and
work are usually considered incongruent. The authors point out, early in the
book, that "Passion is at the root of creative genius, personal transformation,
and notable events. Passion is emotional energy; it stimulates life and
energizes individuals to work toward goals. New products, new ideas, creative
ways to deliver services, inventions, an scientific discoveries are produced
because someone or some organization is passionate." OK. Passion seems to be
consistent with what we're striving to accomplish in employment organizations
today.
How might we approach this? The authors explain that they've done
some research that connects learning with passion. Put the concepts together and
you get meaningfulness, and there are a lot of people looking for opportunities
to feel a greater sense of meaning in what they do. Readers will be guided
through an interesting study into passion, what it is, how it fits, and what to
do with it. Individuals will gain, but trainers and organizational development
professionals will find it most thought-provoking and stimulating.
The
book is organized into eight chapters: Introduction to Passion and Work, The
Foundations of Passionate Work, Passion Transformation Process and Cycle,
Occupational Intimacy, The Discovering Process, The Designing Process, The
Developing Process, and Transforming Work---the five keys to achieving trust,
commitment, and passion in the workplace. An index will help you find your way
back to those things you want to work with again. A number of exercises are
included to stimulate your thinking and help you gain some sense of measurement
in the emergence of passion in your personal and corporate life.
The book
may seem a bit pricey for only a couple hundred pages, but there is a lot packed
into those pages. The book is set mostly in 11 point type, so find a nice quiet
place with good light to absorb all the authors have to share.
Unlocking
The Secrets Of Successful Women In Business
Linda Brakeall & Anna
Wildermuth
Hawthorne Press
11 Arrow Wood, Suite 2D, Hawthorn Woods, IL
60047
0971020906, $24.95, trade paperback, 336 pages
Every once in a
while we find a book that is well-meaning, has lots of good information, but was
written by consultants who were just a bit too commercial. It's obvious that
Anna Wildermuth wants to help you with your appearance and Linda Brakefall wants
to help you with your empowerment, professionalism, and effectiveness. Their
addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are easy-too easy for this
reviewer-to find in the book. OK, let's get past the commercial and the authors
introducing themselves at the beginning of the book. Let's get into the
meat.
The book is organized into 26 Keys for success. Each key is a
chapter with text written by the authors and a wide range of guest
columnists-cameo appearances, if you will, by people with expertise in the
subject matter. These contributions, in a smaller type size, are a bit of a
stopper as you read the book, but build a sort of sense of community. Hmmm.
Stopper. Like a speed bump or a curve in the road.
Actually, the whole
book is designed with curves and speed bumps that slow the reader's pace so more
can be absorbed. The pages are filled with tips and quizzes and quotes and
questions to answer. Quite a bit to absorb-like the authors mixed a stew and
threw everything in that would add to the "body." The "body" of this book is
loaded. It's a potpourri of information and advice about being taken seriously,
rising to the top, charm and charisma, personal and professional style,
approachability, color, clothing, business travel, image, and working with your
shape. You will find helpful information on business make-up, hair and grooming,
business etiquette, interviewing for a job, presentation skills, and public
speaking.
The authors cover a wide range of topics, though I'm not sure
that I agree with all they suggest. Being a man, I asked a couple of
businesswomen to look at this book with me so I could be sure to be fair. Their
response included words like "inconsistent," "unprofessional," and "very
basic."
There's a section in the back of the book offering resources for
additional learning. By category, you will find what I believe are book titles
and authors. There is insufficient detail for those who might want to access
additional information, but readers could use search engines on the world wide
web to do their research.
The authors are, no doubt, fine professionals
in their fields. Unfortunately, while it offers valuable content, this book is
not as professional as it could be. Advertisements at the end of every chapter
is a bit much. The publishing of this book was managed by The Jenkins Group,
says a statement on the back cover. They should have been more deeply involved
to keep this stew from becoming stone soup.
Handle With Care: Motivating
And Retaining Employees
Barbara A. Glanz
McGraw-Hill
ISBN 0071400672,
$16.95, Trade Paperback. 316 pages
If you want to retain employees,
motivate them and care for them. OK, no-brainer. Arguing with that kind of a
statement is like being against Motherhood and Apple Pie. So, there has to be
something more to this book. And there is . . . after just a little bit of
digging.
The book begins with a chapter on the research of what motivates
employees. Not much new here. In chapter 2, the author reports the results of
her original research into what motivates front-line workers. She surveyed 1200
employees. There is some thought-provoking information here, but nothing
dramatic if you've spent much time in this kind of human resources research. For
those who have not been exposed to this kind of data, this will be interesting
material.
The real meat of this book is the author's C.A.R.E. model for
motivating and retaining employees. The acronym represents Creative
Communication, Atmosphere and Appreciation for All, Respect and Reason for
Being, and Empathy and Enthusiasm. The model is explained, completing Part 1 of
the book.
Part 2 consist of Ideas and Stories from Managers, Employees,
and Organizations Who Care. Some interesting case studies here. Chapter 6
includes a six page list of ideas from employees. Great checklist of reward
opportunities. Chapter 7 presents a brief survey used by one company to gain
input from employees about what kind of rewards they prefer.
In Part 3,
the book begins to bubble with value. In over 200 pages, Glanz delivers dozens
of ideas, explaining each idea and giving real-life examples of how the ideas
are actually implemented in a wide range of employer organizations. Chapter
after chapter--full of ideas organized in an easy-to-follow format according to
the author's C.A.R.E. formula. This section of the book is the real power which
earns this book a good rating. The quality of the content and presentation in
this section overcomes the weaker beginning.
Four appendices add value,
providing self-evaluations for managers (useful for trainers), a sample employee
survey, a culture test, and a bibliography. A worthwhile book for managers and
supervisors.
Roger E. Herman, Reviewer
www.hermangroup.com
Liana's Bookshelf
The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook
Editors,
Murdoch Magazines
Murdoch Books
213 Miller Street, North Sydney, NSW
2060
ISBN 08641151051, CND $ 29.95, 304 pp,
There are many cookbooks
on the market, but this one is unique in every aspect as it is written by a team
of experts in food who are professionals in the field of vegetarianism. '
Vegetarian food has come a long way since the days when it was regarded as the
province of faddists,' the Editors say. ' Now, it is fresh , modern and young an
exciting cuisine nearly everybody is attracted to try it and appreciate
it.'
Packed with superb vegetarian recipes, from snacks to substantial
meals, from desserts to drinks, this book is the tribute to world-wide flavors
and fresh produce.
'Our eating habits have evolved,' the editors write.
'...our discovery of the infinite range of non- meat dishes from other lands,
and the seemingly daily increase in the variety of vegetables ,grains, nuts and
pulses now available, have combined to make vegetarian cooking exciting and
innovative and, simultaneously, extended our appreciation of good
food.'
The book is divided into various sections. It starts with facts
about a Good Vegetarian Diet and goes on to the Healthy Food Pyramid which tells
the readers what to eat and how much of each kind. 'EAT MOST: Grains, foods made
from grains ,and fruit and vegetables. EAT LEAST: Sugar, honey, butter, cream,
margarine...'the authors write. Then come the Carbohydrates, Fibre and Protein
parts, all filled with useful info and advice ,as well as the food sources of
the above. 'Finding Fibre: Rolled oats, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, sultanas...'
There is also info on Vegans Diet, a Vitamins and Minerals section , Fats and
Rich-in-Nutrients foods and in the end are the Flavors and a brief Guide on how
to use the book. 'A WORLD OF FLAVORS : One of the great joys of vegetarian
eating lies in its versatility. There are many exotic detours available through
the world's cuisines...' the experts say. Next ,there is a list of herbs that
match certain foods, a quite essential piece of info everybody needs to know in
order to enhance their dishes: ' Mint with potatoes, cloves with oranges, garlic
with just about anything savory...'
Next come the recipes, which are
displayed in a highly attractive way that makes the readers want to try them!
Soups and starters, snacks and party food, pies and pizzas (such as Silverbeet
pie and Harvest pie which look extremely appetizing ) ,grain and pulses are only
a few of the categories mentioned in the book. At the end of this section there
are the Drinks; delicious, easy-to-prepare drinks for every taste. Peach Dream,
Banana Egg Flip, Energy Shake are only few of the lot. All worth trying ! There
is an index at the back of the book for easy reference. The book is fully
illustrated in colored photographs .
Packed with scrumptious vegetarian
recipes, The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook contains all the info the readers
need to make the most of these mouth-watering foods. It caters for everybody not
only for vegetarians- who would like to try something different, exotic, tasty,
but most of all healthy.
Related titles
Broader Than Beans, Lesley
Waters
The Optimum Nutrition Bible, Peter Holford (www.ion.ac.uk)
The
Functional Foods Revolution, Dr M .Heasman & Julian
Mellentin
Turtles
Mervin F. Roberts
T.F.H. Publications, Inc.
1
TFH Plaza, 3rd & Union Avenue, Neptune City, NJ 07753
ISBN 0876669283,
$5.99, 94 pp, 1-800-631-2188
Turtles as Pets was the author's first
little book about pets, in 1954. It was a 32-pager, '...which is still being
read, but today pet keepers are more sophisticated and they want more useful
facts, more accurate reasons,' the author says. 'So, here it is, completely
re-written.'
This book includes 50 full-color photos and over 25 black
and white photos. It presents easy-to-follow advice about all aspects of
selecting and caring for pet turtles.
The readers have all the info they
need , such as getting started, feeding turtles, diseases and ailments. A
simplified, yet detailed book that is still popular .
The introduction
deals with the anatomy of turtles supported by attractive illustrations. 'All
turtles are toothless. All have tails and eyelids but no external ears...,' M.
F. Roberts writes.
Then comes Turtle Keeping which includes useful advice
on how to care for these pets. It mentions all the risks involved, like
Salmonella infection. 'This disease is similar to typhoid fever but is less
dangerous. It is best controlled by habitat cleanliness,' the author
says.
Reproduction includes facts and striking photos, such as the one
that a baby turtle is hatching from its egg. Feeding, Housing and Keeping
aquatic and semi-aquatic and terrestrial species chapters follow giving a lot of
info and advice on turtles.
'In general, the semi-aquatic and fully
aquatic turtles tend to prefer more meat in their diets than do the purely
terrestrial species,' the author says.
'If you want your pet to be an
inside pet, give it warmth and full-length daylight hours with artificial light
right through the winter.'
'If you choose to keep terrestrial turtles you
will find that many are long-lived and easy to maintain.'
The last
chapter is about Diseases and Ailments , a very important section everyone
should read before buying a turtle, especially those who have
children.
'Aquatic turtles are often fed decayed or spoiling meat scraps
which harbor Salmonella bacilli,' the author says. '...no pet keeper should
knowingly let children who suck their thumbs also put their hands into an
aquarium...'.
The book ends with a quick review of aquatic and
semi-aquatic turtle-borne Salmonella. There is also some reference to other
publications.
Turtles is a well-organized book, clearly laid out and
easy-to-read by both adults and children.
It caters for all pet lovers
who wish to know more about turtles, no matter if they intend to buy one or not.
It is educational, interesting and highly informative.
The photographs
are attractive and very helpful and all the facts are presented in an
interesting way.
So, if you are going to buy a turtle, or if you already
have one, or even if you want to learn about turtles, then this book is for
you!
Related titles:
Sea Turtles, Jeff Ripple, ISBN
0896583155
Amphibians, Steve Grenard, ISBN 0876051379
Liana
Metal
Reviewer
Hodgins' Bookshelf
Living History Chronicles
Gwilym
Jones
General Store Publishing House
Box 28, 1694B Burnstown Road,
Burnstown, ON, Canada K0J 1G0
ISBN 1-894263-50-2, $24.95, 227 pp.,
1-800-465-6072
This collection arranges contributions alphabetically by
author's surname. An average memoir here runs to about a page of the author's
biography, four pages of wartime experiences, and a page of photos and perhaps a
map or mural or blank space - about six pages in all. However, individual
entries may be as brief as Paratrooper Frank West's two pages, or as lengthy as
the 14 pages devoted to Infantryman (Black Watch)/POW (Prisoner of War)
MacGregor Roulston.
Each true story tends to make an easy read, but
interest quotients naturally vary. Among other things, some writers have
pedestrian styles, while others add sparks of wit and the like.
The first
story of the collection happens to be that of a woman who was a noncombatant
entertainer, but these facts have no bearing whatsoever on her coming first; she
owes her initial place in the book to the alphabetical order of the name her
second husband gave her: Ackroyd.
Opinions are likely to differ on the
following point, but I feel the 33 biographical sketches of the participants in
this collection of war stories must be of far greater interest to the persons
described, and to their families and friends, than they are to me - and perhaps
to others who likewise find themselves unrelated to any of those 33.
To
me, the book's chief fascination lies in the often remarkable experiences
recounted, supported by the volume's quite copious graphics, which are more
expensive to produce than plain text.
Should the price of this book seem
high for a paperback, then, note that there are two group photos, plus two
individual ones of each ex-warrior - one in uniform long ago, and another
showing the person's present face - tallying 68 author photos alone, then - plus
24 maps (index: see page 205), 21 badges/insignia, photos of murals typically
showing warships and warplanes or battlefield scenes, photos of foot patrols in
Korea, etc.
The 1941-45 war in the Pacific is scarcely represented,
except in the recurrent theme that after the fall of the Third Reich in Europe,
many service people received new orders to ship out and fight the Japanese ...
only to have those orders cancelled with the dropping of atomic weapons upon
Japan, bringing that war to an abrupt halt.
The book would have been very
different had it been compiled in, say, Winnipeg rather than Toronto - Winnipeg
having been home to the contigents of about 2,000 largely untrained Grenadiers
and Rifles (some of whom had in fact never fired a rifle!) sent early in WW II
to hold Hong Kong against 50,000 Japanese troops. See www.valourandhorror.com
for these and many further details.
At some point, I must explain for
fellow non-military types that Welsh-native Gwilym Jones's "MM" is evidently the
Military Medal - a British decoration, I believe. One of the points on which I
cling to my profound ignorance is whether or not we now have uniquely Canadian
decorations for merit, valour, etc. in military service; there are at any rate
uniquely Canadian civilian honours nowadays, such as the Order of Canada ... but
the men and women veterans who figure in Jones's book left the armed forces many
years ago, and seem unlikely to have been decorated under any new, all-Canadian
guidelines.
Canada has never had a corps of Marines (so handy for
invading other countries from the sea!) and has had a Canadian Coast Guard only
as a civilian service responsible for navigational aids, for icebreaking and
some Arctic provisioning, and, to an extent, for search & rescue. In recent
years the CCG was taken from Transport Canada and merged into the Fisheries and
Oceans dept., which until then had solely had its own, separate civilian
fleet.
Thus during WW II Canada in essence had only her army, navy, and
airforce as foreign-going armed services. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police or
"Mounties" were and are an armed force, but go foreign only very occasionally in
the process of enforcing Canadian law, e.g., on the high seas, or when helping
other countries organize and train police forces.
What the people of both
sexes who contributed memoirs to this book chiefly share today is their
membership in the Royal Canadian Legion's Toronto/Highland Creek Branch 258 and
its Living History Speakers Bureau - the Bureau's name explaining the seemingly
redundant terms, "History" and "Chronicles", in the book's title.
I have
no idea what branch of the RCL is located in, say, Winnipeg, but it certainly is
not 258!
Even a collection of 33 different personal stories is far from
covering the total Canadian experience in the wars in question - particularly
concerning our 40,000 WW II fatalities, such as my cousin Leslie was: a bomber
pilot lost without a trace over the English Channel, circa 1940. (It has always
seemed to me the height of irony that those who gave the most receive the least
reward afterward ... but how could matters be arranged in any other way? This
problem of assuring equity leaves me amongst those who feel totally
stumped.)
The book does however make a significant sampling among those
wars' survivors, and it is important that such documentation has not been
attempted too late. An RCN veteran related by marriage to my family, one who'd
survived the Battle of the Atlantic in corvettes, was silenced forever by
natural causes, a year or two ago - a form of attrition that must be occurring
everywhere.
The sampled authors served in numerous different Canadian
units, except that some few represent all the British armed services save the
Royal Marines, and one was in the Polish Army. The three women among them were
in the CWAC (Canadian Women's Army Corps), the RCAF (WD) or Royal Canadian Air
Force Women's Division, and the (British) Women's Royal Navy Service. The three
men from the British Army had been in the Infantry, Artillery, and Airborne
(SAS) - and this last is still sworn to secrecy. There also is a native of the
northern Netherlands province of Friesland, but he had immigrated to Canada at
age 6, in 1930.
One man in this group tried and tried to enlist in the
various fighting forces, but was thin and didn't meet the minimum weight
criterion until finally being accepted for service only in Canada, on
speculation that he could eventually gain the necessary bulk to go overseas;
then, once trained, he was utilized in training others to drive tracked and
wheeled army vehicles. It appears he never got sent overseas in the war but, as
he points out, German U-boats carried the war right here, torpedoing ships and
causing other havoc by penetrating as far inland as perhaps Trois-Rivie`res,
about halfway between Que'bec and Montre'al.
Canada might have been
considered a fringe war zone, then, and, preparing in advance of need, we
installed air-raid sirens, appointed civilian block air-raid wardens complete
with tin hats, held drills, and so forth, besides instituting rationing and many
other measures.
Members of the Forces who had volunteered for overseas
service but had been kept in Canada wore a special G S emblem visibly conferring
the status of at least being willing to risk everything for their
country.
A woman RCAF member among the book's authors also didn't go
overseas, but was trained to assemble and service aircraft instruments. Apart
from her time in training, she spent the early part of the war assembling oxygen
masks, and then was set to painting radium dials for fuel gauges and the like,
to facilitate night flying - speaking of which, I've heard that such artisans
used often to lick their paint brushes to give the bristles nice sharp tips,
resulting in their ingestion of far too much highly radioactive radium; in fact,
ANY amount is too much.
Somewhat more that halfway through the book
occurs the story of British Paratrooper Ronald F. Johnson who, we are told, was
18 in 1956. A bit of arithmetic suggests he was born in 1938 and was therefore
too young for either WW II or the Korean War. Instead he served in Gibraltar,
Cyprus, and Jordan in the late 1950s. He thus is an exception among those who,
compiler Gwilym Jones informs us, were "veterans of the Second World War and
Korean War".
Johnson mentions semi-humorously one Charlie C. who, in
Nicosia, "caught a piece of shrapnel in the rear end". That happening reminds me
of a forestry student I knew at a research camp in 1948, who told of having been
the only survivor when an enemy had lobbed a grenade in through the open
hatchway of their tank. He himself had a cavity about the size and shape of half
a North American football, or perhaps less than half a Rugby ball as used
elsewhere in the world, blown out of the solid flesh of one of his buttocks.
Despite the marvelous job some surgeon had done in patching him up as well as
possible, just how he had managed to stand, walk, perhaps even run, I've never
quite understood. I am quite ready to believe, at any rate, that there was
nothing humorous in the predicament into which he'd suddenly been
flung.
I'd hazily understood that "The Legion" was only for "real" war
veterans, i.e., for ones who'd served in actual theatres of "shooting" war
overseas ... but from this book it seems I have been at least partially mislead.
The first story, for example, is told by a stage performer who only once
happened to catch sight of a German SS man, escaped from a truckload of
prisoners, in a theatre in Nijmegen, Netherlands. It seems however that she, and
a number of others too, qualified well enough to bear the name of
veteran.
Actually, that seems a thoroughly good thing. Who needs more
rank-pulling or other forms of belittlement and ritualized unpleasantness, once
the people involved have all received their discharges and are on as close as
they'll ever get to an even footing?
Almost as soon as World War II broke
out in September '39, some of the most curious arrangements imaginable were made
to get war materiel into rapid production. In centretown Ottawa, for example, an
existing streetcar barn was hurriedly pressed into service to build training
aircraft for the RCAF. Tram tracks still ran into and perhaps right through the
new "aircraft factory"; completed aircraft fuselages and wings were simply
loaded aboard flatbed streetcar chassis and rolled out and through the busy
streets to, I suppose, Ottawa Rockcliffe Airport (Ottawa Uplands Airport, now
the Ottawa International site, had no tram access) where the construction,
outfitting and testing of the new craft were completed. Ferry pilots would then
fly them away to training fields that were being thrown together at breakneck
pace all over the country.
In that environment of utmost urgency, it may
perhaps be better understood why airforce rather than contractors' personnel
were used to paint instrument dials; whatever did the job got the nod. More than
once, a reader of these wartime stories is likely to need to see matters in this
perspective, whenever what look like second-rate arrangements were rammed
through. Consider, after all, that the entire war ran its course in about five
years, a period of time that many a peacetime scheme might spend merely under
analysis and discussion!
Can I recommend this book, then, and if so, on
what basis? Well, it's certainly no compendium on "Canada at War" - but if we
accept that it's a product of a number of individuals centred upon Toronto,
almost all of whom served in the European theatre during WW II or else in Korea,
it does provide a spot sampling of experiences of mid-20th-century warfare which
can both inform us and, for those who don't feel too appalled, even entertain us
(noting that some folk actually go looking for horror films and the like, in the
personal conviction that those are "entertaining".)
Here we get a
worm's-eye view, on the whole - not a strategic or commanding-officer's
overview. This scope too, however, can have its uses, such as to some future
author of historical war novels who will not have the opportunity to experience
that style of warfare, but who may nonetheless learn of it vicariously by
reading these very "Living History Chronicles", and like sources.
Those
who hope to understand the "average joe/jane" and his/her times during WW II
and/or the Korean conflict have the most to gain.
Lazarus,
Arise
Nicholas Kilmer
Poisoned Pen Press
6962 E. First Ave. Ste. 103,
Scottsdale, AZ, USA, 85251
1890208809, $24.95; 213 pp.,
1-800-421-3976
Nicholas Kilmer was, says his blurb on the back flap of
this book's dustjacket, a teacher for many years; now he is a painter and art
dealer. However, the book's front-cover design (illustrating Lazarus's
miraculous revival from the grave by Jesus) was created by an apparent kinsman,
Jacob Kilmer, according to the back cover.
The mediaeval-style painting -
either the story's circa-1400 parchment version, purporting to be from Duke
Philip the Bold's `Limbourg Bible', or its modern representation as attributed
to the other Kilmer - may play a limited role, depending on how one sees the
novel's genre.
Words on the dust jacket call the book an "art mystery".
True, it outlines plentiful research, etc., into the painting's origin, history,
and value, and many of the tale's characters are dead painters or live art
dealers/agents - many of the lot none too ethical. Yet the final outcome is
double murder. Is the genre really "murder mystery", then?
The Lazarus
painting's role in the tale being enigmatic, the use of Lazarus's name in the
title may be questioned. Supposing the genre to be murder mystery, the book
might better have been named "Death, Sweet Death", for reasons that become
evident toward the novel's finale.
The painting has the chief function of
bringing the protagonist, Fred, into contact with other characters in the drama,
but to what extent do the characteristics of the painting matter to the story,
and to this review? I still can't decide, but it may be helpful to you if I
summarize the Lazarus story as described in the Gospel of St. John, Chapter
11.
Jesus had been performing miracles, and the orthodox Jewish clergy
felt threatened that He was drawing away their power base, a problem shortly to
culminate in Jesus's trial before Pontius Pilatus. "What is the life of this one
man, Jesus, compared with the integrity of our entire system?" the argument
went. In that perspective, the Lazarus episode seems to have been fated as the
proverbial last straw sealing Jesus's doom.
Jesus apparently dawdled on
his travel toward Jerusalem while He learned that His friend Lazarus was
seriously ill, then dead, and finally buried. At last Jesus arrived at Lazarus's
sepulchre, where He would perform His last miracle to raise his friend to life
again.
Verse 38 describes the tomb as follows: "It was a cave, and a
stone lay upon it." That rough enclosure is nonetheless depicted, in the novel's
cover illustration, as a finely and expensively carved coffin of marble or
alabaster, with a series of gilded medallions on its side and a long, precisely
fitted lid of the same stone.
Well yes, technically "a stone lay upon it"
- but since when is a casket worthy of a Duke's interrment the same as "a
cave"?
Kilmer writes into his story an expert in such matters, Hannah
Bruckmann by name, who recognizes the painting as the work of a family of
mediaeval artists surnamed Limbourg who hailed from the town then spelled
Nimwegen, now Nijmegen, originally the Roman outpost called Novio
Magus.
(I happen to know that area pretty well, my wife being from nearby
Arnhem. Both towns lie in Gelderland, but Nijmegen borders on Limbourg, today's
Limburg, divided between Germany and the Netherlands; I have in-laws living on
the open Dutch side, about a 5-minute stroll from the forested German
area.)
Those Limbourg-family artists also created a "Book of Hours"
containing a closely related illustration, so that protagonist Fred and
technical expert Hannah hold the following exchange, on page 103:
`Fred
said, "You were suspicious when you saw the `Lazarus'. `That sarcophagus is
familiar,' you said, or `too familiar.'"
`"Well, it is. You get exactly
the same image, the same dying Greek of a naked corpse, the same carved coffin a
duke could afford but not Lazarus, even half of the same surprised mourners, in
the `Lazarus' Herman Limbourg painted for the Duke of Berry's `Book of
Hours'.'
Ducal expectations had outweighed Biblical testimony, then.
Kilmer's grasp of power-based mediaeval art, relayed to us by his Hannah
character, dazzlingly emerges as the first half of the story unfolds.
At
first I suspected the two-handed scythes of three farm workers in the painting's
background constituted an anachronism, but research showed that the implement
was invented by the Romans (no date being mentioned by my source), and may well
have been available to agriculture in Jesus's day - not to say during the
Mediaeval era in which the artwork was supposedly painted.
This
illustration's relevance to Kilmer's tale is that it accidentally comes into the
possession of Fred Taylor, the protagonist of Volume Five in a series of art-
(or perhaps murder-) mystery novels, the previous books in this presumed series
evidently being named, "Harmony in Flesh and Black", "Man With a Squirrel", "O
Sacred Head", and "Dirty Linen". It quickly creates a sensation in the art
world.
As my readers will know, I'm interested in the structures of novel
series, but I swear I didn't know of any such connection when I chose this book
to study! Now that I'm started, though ...
Sequel novels present a
special challenge to the author, if not also to the reader.
At one
extreme, should the author not recapitulate previous volumes, a new reader
discovering one of the later books may be mystified by unexplained references to
events, personalities, etc. of the earlier volumes; one's bewilderment is like
that of entering a movie theatre long after the show's beginning, so that the
background is missing.
At the opposite extreme, excessive
recapitulations, particularly if clumsily detailed, can nearly drive established
readers up the wall.
How does Kilmer's 2001 serial novel rate? I find he
errs in omitting a sufficient background. Established readers of his series may
understand him without a proper recap but, as a newcomer to the series, I
didn't. Thus when someone named Molly (Riley?) was mentioned without explanation
on page 5, I wondered at first whether she was Fred's secretary, professional
partner, daughter, mistress, wife, or perhaps even a bridge partner? Some of
these guesses fairly soon appear wrong, though; a Sam, who is Molly's son but is
apparently not Fred's, and a Terry, evidently short for Theresa rather than
Terrence, also appear, but they seem too old to be Fred's grandchildren. All in
all my guess, based on "Lazarus, Arise", is that Molly and Fred have a
common-law marriage.
With exceptions noted hereunder, Kilmer's writing
style is reminiscent of Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series, but moved
from New York to Boston, and not as literary. If we may give the word "art" its
broad interpretation, I'd say the genre of their books is precisely the same.
However Kilmer, as a specialist in the graphic arts, will not likely be as
polished a writer - all other things being equal - as is a literary specialist
such as Block, who even has written a guidebook for novelists.
In fact
Kilmer's writing irritates me in two specific ways, while his editor seems
asleep at the switch. (Why, oh why don't editors edit or, failing that, then
strongly advise their authors how to self-edit?)
Firstly, protagonist
Fred Taylor indulges in a great deal of talking aloud to himself - soliloquizing
is a more dignified word - even if the men in white suits have yet to catch him
in their butterfly nets.
Secondly, Kilmer repeats the clause, "Fred
said", or "Fred" followed by some similar verb, entirely too often.
To
exemplify both faults, from page 91 I quote these brief soliloquies:
"Get
information. Don't speculate," Fred said.
"So, we talk to the neighbors,"
Fred decided.
"That'll have to wait," Fred said.
That simple,
declarative sentence structure is so unvaried as to grow as boring as "See Dick
run" in a child's reading primer.
Summing up "Lazarus, Arise", I find it
something of a mishmash that comes to an end, rather than to a conclusion, and
that leaves me dissatisfied. I hope however that other readers will appreciate
this, or perhaps some other work of Kilmer's, better than I; for whoever wrote
the inside-back-cover blurb calls this book "no less than masterful," suggesting
there should by rights be ample reason for such a hope.
The Black Pit ...
and Beyond
J. Gordon Mumford
General Store Publishing House
Box 28,
1694 Burnstown Road, Burnstown, ON, Canada K0J 1G0
ISBN 1-894263-19-7; price
Can$19.95, plus Can$5.05 if sent by mail
138 pp., incl. 2 simple maps., tel.
1-800-465-6072);
Author Gordon Mumford was a British citizen at the time
he describes, in the 1940s - although, with his family, he would move to British
Columbia, Canada in 1980. His memoirs tell us chiefly of his wartime experiences
as junior radio officer in his second, third, and fourth ships, although his
first vessel is several times mentioned in passing and in minimal detail. Even
less discussed is his fifth ship, mentioned but not even named at this book's
end.
These memoirs are organized in three Parts relating to three voyages
or cruises in different ships, from late 1942 to early 1945.
In Part One,
"The Western Approaches [to the British Isles]", he describes the terror of
finding his Transatlantic convoy beset by "wolf packs" of enemy U-boats or
submarines (U was German for Untersee, "undersea".) This harrowing episode
occurs in a North Atlantic area implicitly compared to the black pit of Hades;
for anti-sub aircraft of that era, when powered flight had only 39 years of
developmental history, had insufficient range to patrol and fight enemies that
far from land.
It was an area, then, where a convoy was on its own, the
available escorting naval forces then consisting chiefly of corvettes -
originally little more than converted whaling vessels, in emergency production
since the outbreak of war in 1939, although vastly improved classes would
follow.
The entire naval squadron escorting that particular convoy was
Canadian, save the British rescue ship, HMS "Toward", of unstated class but
presumably fitted out for hospital use. The RCN (Royal Canadian Navy) escort
ships were the river-class destroyer HMCS "St. Laurent", and the five town-class
corvettes, HMCS "Chilliwack", "Shediac", "Napanee", "Battleford", and
"Kenogami".
Convoy ONS 154 had formed off Malin Head, Ireland, for a
voyage via New York to Curacao in the Caribbean, to fetch a load of high-octane
aviation fuel. It reached the Black Pit area around Christmas of 1942, a season
dreaded for its awful weather and frigid seawater, for its short days and long
nights. This was the convoy that would also be written of by Henry Revely in
"The Convoy the Nearly Died" (Wm. Kimber, London, 1979).
Mumford was the
Third (most junior) Radio Officer aboard the "Scottish Heather", in a day when
radio communication was transmitted and read in Morse Code, although no doubt
further encrypted in case of enemy interception. He is on duty for two four-hour
watches or shifts per 24-hr. day, from midnight to 4 a.m. (the First Watch or
"graveyard shift"), and from noon to 4 p.m. (Afternoon Watch).
A
black-and-white (there was little colour photography at the time) aerial
photograph of such a convoy in the process of assembling is spread out over the
front, spine, and back covers of this book, the hue actually being a sort of
leaden blue-black suggesting the sombre mood of the wartime ocean. Distant ships
nearly vanish in the haze, while others are overprinted on the back cover and
thereby made somewhat indefinite to count. The view shows between 50 and 60
merchant (commercial) ships, but there likely were additional vessels, perhaps
many of them, outside the camera's field of view.
Some such ships would
have been slow tubs the U-boats could run rings around, and the entire convoy
was obliged to travel at the speed of the slowest; for sticking together was the
only practicable way to take shelter under naval protection.
Superimposed
on the front cover is a smallish b&w photo of a lifeboat crowded with
survivors of a torpedoed "merchant ship" - generically so called to include
freighters, tankers, and any other categories present, such as troop
ships.
As further graphical materials, each Part of this book ends with a
map which, I feel, should have been placed at the Part's BEGINNING. It's true
that the Table of Contents reveals the existence and location of each such map,
but I habitually consult Tables of Contents only for reference purposes, not
during pleasure readings - and I suspect doing so is quite usual. I thus only
discovered the maps for Parts One and Two after I no longer needed
them.
Their better placement would have been easy. There is a big blank
space on page viii opposite the beginning of Part One on page 1, where the Part
One (or Black Pit) map could have been ideally placed to inform one's reading of
the Part One text. Then, that first map having been moved ahead fifty-odd pages,
the Part Two map could have come from page 98 to the vacated spot on page 52,
opposite the start of Part Two's text. Likewise, the Part Three map should have
been printed on page 98, not page 138 where this book essentially
ends.
U-boats certainly held the upper hand for a time in the Battle of
the Atlantic, having been well ahead in the technological arms race at the
outbreak of hostilities. As the war progressed, though, improved aircraft became
available, while simple depth charges, developed in WW I and requiring that the
attacking ship pass right over the attacked U-boat, were supplemented or
possibly replaced by ahead-firing squid and hedgehog anti-submarine
weapons.
Another important factor aboard the escort vessels was ASDIC,
actually the acronym of a committee formed in 1918, an echo-based technology
comparable to underwater RADAR, later renamed SONAR for "SOund Navigation And
Ranging". This system, which generated "pings" and measured their return time,
could locate a submerged sub and guide the surface attack vessel to a position
where her munitions might become effective. No doubt Sonar improved as the war
progressed, but for whatever cause, Mumford mentions no actual successes scored
by naval escorts, anyplace in his book - possibly out of a longstanding if
ill-advised antipathy between the fighting and merchant navies?
A onetime
colleague of mine spent the war flying patrols in British-built, four-engined
Sunderland seaplanes over the Atlantic from a base in, I think, Dakar, Senegal,
Africa, dropping depth charges set to fire at 30 feet depth around, and firing
guns upon, any U-boat they could catch on the surface - to which tactics,
however, the Germans soon replied with the schnorkel (our "snorkel"), which
allowed U-boats much increased submerged cruising time. Evidently the
Sunderland, too, lacked the range to patrol the Black Pit area.
Also
during the war, nighttime U-boat detection improved vastly in moving from ships'
guns firing "snowflake" parachute flares, as devised in 1941 and mentioned by
author Mumford as seeing much use in 1942, to radar. To quote from "The Oxford
Companion to Ships and the Sea", Peter Kemp, Ed., Oxford University Press, (c)
1976, "The breakthrough for shipborne radar occurred in 1940 with the British
invention of the magnetron ... by 1943, 1.9 centimetre wavelength sets were
capable of detecting U-boats' periscopes ..." This would have meant that even
submerged U-boats could be detected, and many were destroyed in consequence. (I
speculate that a U-boat running with her periscope down, but with her schnorkel
up, could likewise be detected by radar.)
Before radar, though, merchant
ships such as Mumford's were proverbial "sitting ducks", particularly at
night.
With no pretence of elegance, Mumford's plainspoken memoirs are
told not only in the first person, but also in the present tense. Although my
personal feeling is one of slight discomfort with that style, it does have great
immediacy. A greater you-are-there impact could only be created by writing in
the second person singular, plus the present tense - "You scramble down the
netting, sometimes hanging above the inky ocean free of the ship's side,
sometimes being slammed against the steel plating, all but destroying your
knuckles; until at last you allow yourself simply to drop the last foot or two,
as the lifeboat rides up on a wave as if purposely to meet you ..." I've read
only one story told in the second person, and I didn't like the mood of
compulsion it produced - but certainly the job CAN be done that way. It is not,
though, the POV used by Mumford; the foregoing, brief sample simply exemplifies
how a 2nd.-person story might read.
The first-person perspective strikes
me as closest to the way we live our daily lives, each staying strictly within
his or her own skin, and Mumford manages it rather like an old salt telling some
friends of his life's high points over a mug of dark ale in some smoky
waterfront dive.
Here's a last point concerning style: although Mumford
has lived in Canada for over two decades, he cannot have forgotten the English
terms he used for over five decades. He (or his editor) nonetheless writes
"truck" where an Englishman would write "lorry". North American readers should
have no difficulty in understanding his use of words.
Convoy ONS 154
begins its suffering when the "Empire Union", lead ship in the convoy's twelfth
column, is torpedoed in the wee hours of the morning of 27 December 1942. It
being the young Mumford's radio-office watch, he logs in her distress call, but
it is solely the rescue ship's task to search for survivors. Some minutes later
it's the turn of the "Melrose Abbey", going down without a chance to transmit
any message. Third is a Dutch ship, the "Soekaboemi". Fourth is the "Kind
Edward", which suffers a second explosion when her boilers blow. Nonetheless
Mumford, who has contracted a 'flu on top of being seasick, and who is running a
fever and much weakened, manages to drop straight off to sleep after being
relieved by a different "Sparks" who has the next watch.
Now he has a
chance of up to eight hours of sleep, but is called to breakfast at 8 a.m. He is
however too badly "off his feed" to eat.
He gets through the Afternoon
Watch too, and has returned to bed when the "Scottish Heather" herself is racked
by the explosion of a torpedo striking somewhere near her bow. Its violence is
such that his cabin door is blown from its hinges, to land upon him in bed. His
entire compartment is now a shambles ...
Stresses such as those men lived
under may be relieved by some very rough talk, and I suspect that despite the
many profanities and obscenities embedded in the dialogue Mumford records, he
may if anything have expurgated almost as much as he retains. This is not a book
for those who may be intolerably shocked, then, but it IS highly
realistic.
There are many ways to die or be injured at sea in wartime,
even without counting such standard hazards as heart attack or stroke, diseases
and other medical conditions, falls and other accidents, murder, and suicide.
When a torpedo, shell, or other explosive missile strikes a ship, one can be
instantly slaughtered by the blast itself, or even at some distance by shrapnel
dispersed in all directions. Fire is also a frequent, and frequently deadly
consequence of such a blast, and in badly ventilated places one may be stricken
by such gases as carbon monoxide or even cyanide. Some victims may well be
untouched, yet unable to escape - sealed in by jammed hatches, for example - as
the ship founders. Persons cast, falling, or jumping into the sea may drown, or
may die of hypothermia (low body temperature). Anywhere, people may be crushed
or pinned by falling masts or other debris, or struck even by human bodies
falling or leaping from above. Mumford later hears that one of his classmates
has been killed by flames spreading over oil-slicked water. Even when one is
supposedly safe in a lifeboat, there is a terrible fear of a second torpedo or
other explosion, such as from bursting boilers of a steamship, before the boat
can make her offing.
The boats and any swimming men must also get far
away from the mother ship before she sinks, lest they be towed under in the
vortex of her rapid founder. Mumford identifies two related, potentially deadly
hazards of being too near a torpedoed ship; one is that timbers and the like may
come shooting back to the surface after escaping from the plummeting hulk, doing
so with such force as to maim or kill people and destroy boats not actually
towed under in the vortex. What nearly carries off Mumford and his boatmates,
though, is letting their boat too nearly approach the gaping hole blown in the
ship's forward plating, into which the sea pours to create a situation
comparable to being caught in the currents leading to a waterfall.
Even
after escaping all those menaces, in the dark they find their lifeboat sinking!
For she's been shot through and through with shrapnel from the torpedo
burst.
War is indeed hell, just as they say. I won't tell you how the
episode proceeds and ends, though, being conscious that I might spoil the story
by giving too much away.
Obviously Mumford survives, but he is not
entirely whole in spirit for some time. Even sent home on leave, nightmares
plague him.
Nor are all his evil memories from the war. He then had, and
may have even today, many a nightmare involving his dysfunctional, supposedly
religious educators, some of whose own learning seems to have been limited to
the last seven words of the first (of three, 1612-1680) author Samuel Butler's
couplet in "Hudibras", reading -
"Love is a boy, by poets styled,
Then
spare the rod, and spoil the child."
That is, whereas Butler seems to
preach that one should, out of love, spare the rod despite some risk of spoiling
the child, others seem to have missed the first line and concluded - out of
hatred rather than love, perhaps? - that one must NOT spare the rod, lest the
child be spoiled!
Of the apparently few nuns and monks lacking sadistic
inclinations who had taught Mumford, one had instead been a paedophile -
frightening the boy yet worse.
The years of maltreatment at school were
complemented by his mother's frequent, stern inveighing against every form and
manifestation of sexuality. ("Masturbation will stunt your growth!") The
combined impacts of nearly all authority figures in his life - his more moderate
father having died early - made him a severely repressed and guilt-ridden youth
... not to say, I'd expect, very nearly a mental case. Although normally
attracted to females, he found himself unable to relate to them properly, in
part because he seemed unable to dissociate them from the many belt-whippings
their kind had meted out in his boyhood, or from his mother's dire warnings and
explicit embargoes. To say he was profoundly sexually harassed seems only to
begin describing his difficulties.
Some of Mumford's tormentors had in
fact instilled such hatred in him that he takes a vicious delight when one is
killed in the war. He learns bitterness even toward his mother, for when he is
home on leave between his Part Two and Part Three voyages, she interferes with
and aborts his only opportunity to date a charming and desirable young woman, a
friend of the family who might have become the perfect antidote for the
psychical damage wrought by others.
These themes recur time and again in
Mumford's memoirs. They clearly represent a huge "hangup". To say that
"discipline did him no harm" would be a most dreadful lie!
Thus as the
book's end draws nearer, a reader wonders whether young Gordon will EVER find a
normal life or, as to that, whether even old Gordon has done so even yet,
although his former oppressors have quite possibly gone to a place reserved for
the cruel and unjust?
There is good reason for hope, though, as he
dedicates his book, "To my wife and partner, Barbara ..." Since his Author's
Note warns us that "many personal names have been changed", it's even possible
that he has married one of the women so sadly mentioned in this
book.
After his home leave at the end of Part One, Mumford is assigned to
a different ship, the "Empire Harmony", receiving a promotion with an additional
stripe on his sleeve. It is now that the title words "... and Beyond" begin to
apply, for Part Two is subtitled "The Rock of Gibraltar".
"The
Mediterranean" would have been more representative, but at all events, Part Two
begins with our protagonist staring through binoculars a the coast of Morocco,
Africa, and with Gibraltar also in sight. His ship will put in at "Gib" once or
twice; much more of his time, though, will pass farther east in the
Mediterranean theatre.
The "Empire Harmony" is now on the order of 800
nautical miles or 900 statute miles south of his previous voyage's Black Pit;
she remains well north of the Tropic of Cancer but, compared with the previous
episode's, this is a far warmer, sunnier world - besides which, it is now
mid-April of 1943, and hence a warmer, sunnier time of year, too.
His is
an unusual ship. Besides having the holds typical of a bulk carrier, the "Empire
Harmony" is distinguished by carrying two huge 60-ton cranes which allow her to
lie against piers or the like, in ports near the warring armies' front lines,
where she was used to replace war-damaged land-based hoisting machinery. Thus
the Allies are able to land heavy tanks at Naples in Italy, as one example,
despite the great damage the port facilities have sustained.
Naples is
one of the ports in which young Gordon meets a strikingly lovely lass, in this
case a rare blonde, blue-eyed Italian, who gives him a clear invitation - and
from whom he all but runs, even though it was wartime and he couldn't be certain
of living to see the morrow. Afterward, as he curses his hangup, we can only
sigh with him yet again.
Let's note that Mumford, as a radio specialist,
was never officially involved in ship navigation. It thus is understandable that
he and/or his editor writes erroneously of port and starboard "forward (or
for'ard) quarters". Mathematically, four quarters do indeed make a whole - but a
ship with four quarters, two up forward, would be like a person with four
buttocks, two of them in front.
I quote an unimpeachable authority on
nautical terminology, "The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea": "QUARTER[S],
the two after parts of the ship, one on each side of the centreline. Strictly, a
ship's port or starboard quarter is on a bearing 45 degrees from the stern, but
the term is more often rather loosely applied to any point approximately on that
bearing." The correct nautical expression would have been "on the port or
starboard bow," technically meaning, again in the Companion's words, "within an
arc of four points (45 degrees) extending either side of the bow [i.e., the
forward end of a ship, the opposite of stern.]"
Mumford's ship for his
Part Three voyage was the Canadian-built "Empire Path", favourably compared by a
mate to the all-welded wartime Kaiser Liberty-ships that had developed a
reputation for breaking apart in heavy seas. (As an engineering student in the
early 1950s, I learned that the problem, by then resolved, had been a lack of
annealing to relieve the stresses induced by extreme local heating during the
welding process; whereas much of the "Empire Path"'s hull was
riveted.)
This "voyage" should have been a brief and simple North Sea
crossing from the River Thames to the Rivier Scheldt, almost opposite, with
Antwerp, Belgium, as the convoy's port of destination. There was however the
dangerous complication that the Germans still held much of the Netherlands, just
to the north, where they had a base for E-boats (fast torpedo boats) and midget
submarines.
During the crossing, Mumford is at it again, cursing himself
for his ineptitude with women. At least, though, his social woes seems to take
his mind off the dangers of war. Among other factors, German aircraft nightly
lay mines in the shipping channel, following which Allied minesweepers try to
clear it. The catch is a new type of German mine which lies on the seabed and
isn't picked up by minesweepers' paravane gear.
They pass a recently
destroyed ship, evidently a mining victim - one of the earlier vessels in their
own convoy, perhaps? They do however reach Antwerp safely, and discharge their
cargo.
It is in beginning their return trip to England that one of the
new mines gets them. Rescue is at hand, but among those killed in the initial
heavy explosion is a close friend of Mumford's.
At the book's end,
although he has renewed his acquaintance with a young woman he'd known three
years earlier, the question remains open as to whether or not he has resolved,
or will resolve anytime soon, his social troubles. Smarting (after so much real
maltreatment by the world) under a perceived slight, he refuses a chance to go
aboard a different ship with the same, previously congenial radio colleagues as
in the "Empire Path". Instead, he becomes chief radio officer in a small tanker
heading for the Far East; he thus advances in rank, if perhaps not in social
situation ...
All this time he has been the employee (and, to a large if
not total extent, a responsibility) of a private-sector company. That fact did
little to limit the danger and drama, however, of his part in the
war.
This book has broadened my perspective on World War II a great deal.
Perhaps even more, it makes a good if somewhat accidental study of a seriously
repressed and disturbed, even personality-damaged young man, while raising some
moral dilemmas for our consideration.
I've heard one can do oneself more
harm than good by contravening a deeply held conviction. If that's true, then
however lovely, cultured, etc. a whore Mumford might potentially have had for a
one-night stand, he could well have ended by regretting it most bitterly,
whether or not he'd compromised his health in accordance with his mother's dire
warnings.
If so, might he not have been better counselled - say, by an
insightful psychiatrist - to see things differently? Rather than following a
common male trend of buying a loveless and commercial "lay", might he not have
done better to make amends to the also attractive family friend he had so
admired, but whom his mother had forced him to offend? I for one feel inclined
to answer, "He very likely would have done."
He was, after all, a
precariously sensitized, even oversensitized young man. His best options were
not necessarily those that might perhaps satisfy us more common and - happily or
hopefully - more resilient types.
It is at all events now "water under the
bridge". In the book when we part company with Mumford, it is early 1945. As I
write these lines, it's mid-2002, over 57 years later! We can at best wish that
Mumford may have experienced much joy, in the meantime.
The
Translator
John Crowley
William Morrow
ISBN 0380978628; price USA
$24.95, Can.$37.95; 295 pp.
Here's some brief lead-off advice. Don't hunt
through this book's Part I for information on the translating profession. It is
a story of the personal development of a woman who will only begin studying
Russian in Part II, which starts almost exactly at this book's
midpoint.
Even thereafter, resemblances to normal translating jobs are
close to nil and Kit never becomes a professional translator; she only helps her
professor as further noted hereunder, doing so as a part-time
volunteer.
"Kit", or Christa Malone, the consistent protagonist (or
central character) of this initially just interesting, but increasingly gripping
third-person story, is an American woman who has made, or will make - for almost
throughout Part I there's the complication of a timeframe which (usually)
fluctuates in 30-year leaps between the early 1960s and the early 1990s - stabs
at university studies, writing poetry, and helping translate poems from Russian
to English, the lastmentioned overlapping the territory of Part II. Sometimes we
may aptly call her a young woman (aged 19 when we meet her in the 1960s) but,
whenever the action leaps 30 years ahead, she obviously becomes fiftyish -
middle-aged ... then back again!
Her more-or-less planned activities in
what I might call her "Sixties phase" have first been disturbed by an unwelcome
pregnancy, and at some other point by the disappearance and possible death of
the Russian poet, Falin. He had been exiled in the early '60s from his homeland
and, when Kit first meets him in her freshman year at a Western American
university, it is because he is taking refuge by teaching poetry
there.
This novel's complex structure makes a compact analysis all but
impossible. It often seems the scenario may never settle down, but perhaps the
"Nineties phase" only exists to reveal the Sixties in the perspective of a
freedom of Russian enquiry that was unavailable during almost all the 70 years
of the USSR's tyrannical existence. Perhaps, in other words, the core of this
story is actually the events of the 1960s, and the 90s episodes merely concern
the story's telling in retrospect.
Infrequent, shorter flashbacks into, I
think, the 50s also occur involving Kit's perhaps too-dear brother, Ben, before
he had joined the U.S. army.
Never have I had such trouble in
understanding a novel's genre. For instance, after having tentatively assigned
other labels (the very first was "Literary"), I decided about 70 pages before
the end that this was a slow-developing "spy thriller". After that, however, the
spies all but vanished. Then, 45 pages from the last page, and with the end of
the world threatening, I decided to call it a "Cold War drama" in hopes of
covering all possible, further turns of the plot. Yet REALLY slowly developing
"romance" may even be in the running, as the work's genre!
If the work's
scenario is confusing when condensed, by a coup of masterly writing Crowley
leads us through it quite effectively. For instance, the introductory sequence
of perhaps five chapters flows quite smoothly - but subject to certain
then-unresolved mysteries, and despite leaps between the American era of John F.
Kennedy and the post-Communist era of Russia.
In the second paragraph of
this review the words, "the consistent protagonist", refer to the way this story
maintains Kit Malone's point of view (POV). In contrast, many another
third-person tale's POV jumps about from character to character like the
proverbial flea on a hot griddle, until the reader doesn't know who is who or
with whom to identify. Crowley deserves credit for maintaining a perspective
that's stable in that regard, despite his frequent temporal leaps which turn out
to be largely limited to Part I. Although it isn't Kit who narrates the story,
in essence we are constantly immersed in her thought patterns.
Crowley,
or perhaps his editor, is less consistent in handling dialogue spoken by
"Rossians" in an English that's sometimes broken, sometimes perfectly mastered.
To explain further to the non-linguists among us, a wellknown imparity between
the two languages is that the Russian tongue lacks grammatical articles
equivalent to "the", "a", and "an"; its habitual speakers thus tend to omit such
articles when essaying other languages. The same may or may not apply to the
pronouns he, she, it; for, at least in our cliche'd North American view, those
too are dropped in Russian speech. "Is Rossian tenk" might be our pseudo-Russian
way to say, "It's a Russian tank." In a day when word-processing programs are in
common use, a computer could have scanned a digitized "manuscript" and
automatically picked out, even corrected such inconsistencies.
I also
notice an absence of representations of mispronounced words, such as might have
aided Crowley's character-building efforts and lent his work more authenticity.
In all this I intend no slight, however, upon Russians. Who does not mangle a
foreign language while still in the process of learning it?
On pages
50-51 in Chapter 6, Crowley has the Russian poet Falin teach his class
(including Kit) about English poet A. E. Housman's strikingly simple yet elegant
and evocative verses by quoting from, I think, the famed collection, "A
Shropshire Lad". His sample poem is that lovely one about cherry trees in
blossom. I enjoy/admire the works of many poets, but I LOVE most of Housman's!
They are deeply affecting, but not affected.
In the bad old days of the
Cold War, mysterious assassinations may have been regular fare on both sides of
the Iron Curtain. When fugitive Russian poet Falin's car is pulled from an
American river in flood, but no trace of a body is found, it seems to have been
merely par for the course - just another atrocity that especially the presumably
dead man's admirers in Russia must put up with, during the Sixties. They will
have questions to ask some better day, though, as emerges in the Nineties. This
we know already in the book's first dozen pages, but no further light is shed on
Falin's fate until nearly the very end of Crowley's book.
Let's see
whether I can make sense of the story's jumpy timeline, then, in this condensed
discussion ...
In one flash-forward to the 90s we learn that, back in
time during the Cold War, Kit had included within her own book her translations
of several of the vanished Russian's works - full stop! [Notice the
complications of writing about another writer's (Crowley's) writings about yet
another writer (Kit), who has appropriated the writings of still ANOTHER writer
(Falin) - the one blessing being that none of us writes about "writer's block" -
a usual resort of authors writing about writers. Anyway, reasonably short,
manageable sentences are my only solution.]
Crowley says that much in
Part I, even though Kit will become an assistant translator only in Part II -
full stop! That is, this news seems to arrive before the fact which it describes
has been accomplished.
In fact, Kit's versions of Falin's works were the
only forms to survive, for the USSR's Khruschev regime had evidently obliterated
his Russian-language originals.
Thus, in the much freer Nineties, Kit is
invited to visit for a discussion on Falin to be held in Russia. She feels
morally obliged to attend, almost as if summoned.
Author John Crowley is
capable of a fine Literary style. At the beginning of Chapter 2 of this work he
describes as follows Kit's airliner's arrival over St. Petersburg's (until
recently Leningrad's) airport, near the Baltic Sea's Gulf of Finland: "Christa
Malone's plane descended out of the clear desert air [above the clouds,] and was
clothed again in clammy batting; came down through the ceiling [as it were] into
the house. There a light rain was falling; steely ocean, colorless heaped-up
city, air of tears ..." Perhaps the entire book really does merit being
genre-tagged "Literary". At what point, though, is (say) an adventure not an
adventure because it is capital-L "Literature"? That distinction is too fine for
me, as a non-expert, to call.
Still less certain is whether to call this
novel "historical", a genre term I for a while tried on for size.
In
dealing with recent history, subjective feelings can be evoked. I for one face a
question of whether I myself have become "historical", together with that era?
Too, does history begin one second ago - in which case you, too, are merely
"historical" ... or, if not, then just when in the never-ending march of time
does the historicity transition occur?
I consider the era of the Cuban
missile crisis and, say, the fall of Dien Bien Phu to be recent history - but
yes, certainly historical; whereas - again, to me - the 1990s are still of the
current era. The result is that Crowley's novel seems (to me) historical when it
delves into the Sixties, but nearly current-day when it leaps forward into the
Nineties. To handle such issues, I now often wish I'd studies Arts instead of
Engineering!
At the outset, those leaps into and out of the historical
period had me labelling Crowley's 2002 release "semi-historical", but I gave
that idea up when Part II essentially settled down, as if to stay in the
1960s.
Kit "gets a crush on" her teacher Falin, and in her obsession
takes to surreptitiously shadowing him - as shown in the dust-jacket photo - of
which activity he is perfectly aware, having been shadowed by the best, in his
time. He calls her bluff, and as their conversation verges upon personal as
opposed to literary territory, Kit drops certain answers to us - not to Falin -
concerning her onetime pregnancy. As usual, though, I mustn't spoil an author's
mysteries by revealing their solutions.
For me, Kit's instructions at the
beginning of Part I, Chapter 10 on how to kill oneself are too horrifying to
read. If you're similarly squeamish (and some are more so, e.g., not donating
blood despite good health), or if you're suicidal, just jump straight from page
97 to 100.
By page 110, and about 37% (or 3/8ths) of the way through the
volume, I found myself wondering whether and when the novel's title translator
will EVER materialize?
To do that kind of work you need both training in
a second tongue, and education in its accompanying culture - in this case
evidently Russian. Before Part II, there is no sign of that's actually happening
except for the merely tangential circumstance that Kit studies English poetry
under a native Russian.
What happens instead, late in Part I, is that
Kit's dear brother Ben, who at the end of his army gig had re-enlisted in the
supposedly peacekeeping Special Forces or Green Berets, is officially reported
as accidentally killed during routine training in the Philippines - but rumour
(which seems to stand up) has it that Green Berets were in fact clandestinely
fighting in Vietnam and, whenever they were killed and their bodies could be
retrieved, they were shipped home via the Philippines with "training accidents"
for cover stories.
To have been lied to, ontop of losing Ben, disturbs
the family still more, although supposedly those lies soothed world as well as
U.S. opinion.
We seem firmly moored in the 60s, then, when Kit, still
grieving her dead brother, has another encounter with Falin. He tells his own
life story, a horrific tale of Russian children, like himself, lost by the
million through the Great War (WW I), revolutionary upheaval, civil war,
retribution, pestilence, and other often unimaginable adversities; children
unsheltered, comfortless, untutored and unfed, either surviving by theft, or
else dying in silence in the streets.
Then suddenly on page 124 there is
a gap between paragraphs, and a different Russian man takes up much the same
story, but now in the 1990s - yet mentioning happenings in the year 1927. Oh,
well - hop, hop, hop!
Around this point in the book, we comprehend that
Falin wrote some (or many?) of his poems about those lost Russian children, such
as himself. I infer it may have been for this reason that he became persona non
grata in his own land, and had his poems confiscated and destroyed, all as a
matter of an embarrassed and brutal state's policy. We may even speculate that
Falin has been - or should that read "will be?", given the numerous leaps of the
timeline? - killed by Russian agents to prevent his recalling and rewriting
those works whilst in exile ... or will the assassin (if assassinated Falin in
fact is) prove to be American? Once the book seems unmasked as in some slight
degree a spy thriller, anything seems possible.
We're ahead of ourselves
here, though. Until we catch up, I'll play this tale for the calm affair it
first seems.
Part I ends on page 145. Early in Part II, which proves to
be set nearly entirely in the Sixties, Kit decides to study Russian by taking a
summer course that seemingly is supported by the U.S. Dept. of Defense, given at
an institution located conveniently close to her university. At last, then, we
seem to have got onto track for her translator status.
Kit has deviously
brought her bike from home to go calling on Falin, who has not yet disappeared
and is irresistible to her. He is not her Russian instructor, but she will learn
much Russian from him.
Don't expect a hormone-drenched tale of flaming
romance and lust, however; even alone at his place (but for an almost
immobilized landlady who stays in her own part of the house), their conversation
chastely centres upon poetry, poets, and the Russian language and
idiom.
Out driving in his car one day, they see a distant prospect of
farm buildings; the word "silos" arises, and they both think of the Cold War
missile silos buried underground not far to westward, and of the fact that
Americans were the only ones - true even today - ever to have dropped The Bomb
on enemies.
In English, Falin shows Kit an example of the great problem
of understanding the Russian idiom; in his poem "1937" he tells of a son who
follows in his father's footsteps by being ever prepared for his potential
midnight arrest. Within that poem is the line, "Some smoke of the northland,
known to him and me;" that is, to both father and son. Falin points out
undertones a non-Russian wouldn't catch, but a Russian would: that Northland was
a popular cigarette smoked by both men, while "smoke of the northland" can also
refer to the chimney smoke of prison camps in the far north. How could such
innocents as we ever guess such things? How could we find apt equivalents in
English, particularly if we hadn't seen the hidden references to begin
with?
Nonetheless, Falin goes on to ask Kit's help in translating his
poems to English - not that she knows his language to any useful degree, but
that she has written expressive poems of her own, in English; it is obvious that
she can help greatly to form his poems' new versions.
What he proposes,
then, is his close collaboration as a Russian specialist with her as an English
specialist, to create the same results as one able poet might who had a sure
mastery of both tongues. That means closeness, but Kit's sexual fascination
seems to have waned, while he has never really shown any (keeping it in mind
also that, the book being written from her POV, we don't know what secret
thoughts occur to him.)
For instance, the common Russian term for a black
police car, "raven" in translation, might equate to "paddy wagon" in English -
but that is unsuitable to the poet because of its ridiculous Keystone Cops
overtones; the team therefore agrees on "black maria". (Incidentally, the same
French term is literally translated into English as "salad basket"!)
Such
negotiations and joint decisions continue evening after evening, page after
page, in a dispassionate fashion, relaxed but with neither poet pursuing the
other except to find just the right words.
At last Kit offers herself to
Falin, but is rejected. Ouch! Then he leaves on some sort of trip, asking Kit to
feed the cats, etc., in his absence.
On page 175 a common Americanism
occurs that always jars me, particularly in a generally Literary novel and when
placed in the supposedly expert mouth of a poet and linguist. It is an error in
English if not American syntax, so blatant and basic that even Kit's Russian
interlocutor must have winced. She tells him, "Well I bet I actually can fail
pretty good." That whole miserable sentence is of course colloquial, but mere
colloquialisms are accepted in quoted speech. The problem is that, outside the
U.S., the use of the adjective "good" to replace the adverb "well" is
practically never seen except in only semi-literate sports and crime reports.
(An American dictionary indicates that the adverbial "well" does in fact exist
in the United States.)
Far more importantly, with Falin away, when Kit
drops in to feed the cats a U.S. government agent enters Falin's premises to
snoop. The agent is, moreover, in league with Kit's university dean. By page 225
Kit is horrified to find herself plunged into a dangerous world she'd scarcely
dreamed of; a broth of duplicity, covert surveillance, veiled threats, and
assorted secret agents. Even one of Kit's close friends seems to be
such.
Falin returns, but by now doubts have been cast on him and so he
decides that in the new circumstances they must part. There now seems scarcely
anyone short of Kit's distant parents whom she can trust ... but this dramatic
climax seems to fade away and be replaced by the universally felt (for the real
likelihood of the mass extinction of life on Earth now looms) tension of the
Cuban missile crisis. In this exigency - the Cold War is threatening to become
very hot indeed - Kit and Falin reunite.
It was in part a time for
gallows humour. A girlfriend tells Kit about the Russian medium-range ballistic
missiles, MRBMs, going into Cuba. "... And they could reach as far as Washington
and Indianapolis ... We'd lose Indianapolis[!]"
More to the point, with
the world's end in view Kit at last gets the love affair she's wanted with
Falin. In the morning, though, she awakens to hear him ending a telephone
conversation in Russian. While reassuring her that this is not the end, he tells
her he must go, but that whatever people expect, he will return to her - and
then, taking the Russian versions of his poems with him, he drives
away.
In the meantime, the danger of all-out war escalates farther over
two widely separated U-2 spyplane incidents, one grave because the US aircraft
was shot down over Cuba and its pilot killed, the other perhaps even graver
because it has occurred in Soviet airspace with US nuclear air-to-air missiles
being deployed, although their firing is just averted.
A student march to
support Cuba places Kit before a TV on which Falin's car is seen being winched
out of the water. Thus after 255 pages, the action first mentioned on page 11 is
completed. In the remaining 29 pages, we can hope at last to learn Falin's
fate.
In fact we don't learn it except abstractly, even metaphysically,
during a last 30-year flash-forward. Back on her Russian visit in the Nineties,
Kit sees a street urchin who bears Falin's first name, and finds an acceptance
concerning Falin's end that's too complex to explain here.
The murder of
Kennedy about a year after the Cuban crisis is seen in this book as an
atonement.
Kit makes one try (I don't know in what year) at telephoning
the onetime lad who'd deflowered and impregnated her, years earlier - he has
been of no other account to speak of, in the book - but she gives it up at the
mention of his new house, his wife, and his baby.
A memorial to those
lost in Vietnam is raised in Washington, but without honouring Kit's brother
Ben, who "wasn't really of the Vietnam era"; in other words, Ben's supreme
sacrifice hasn't quite counted because it had occurred while his country was in
denial.
Kit herself has married and given birth to a family, so garnering
perhaps as much happiness as anyone has much right to expect.
The
end.
Pete Hodgins Sr.
Reviewer
Peter's Bookshelf
Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed In A
Noisy World
Shel Horowitz
Chelsea Green Publishing
Post Office Box 428,
White River Junction, VT 05001
ISBN 1890132683, $22.95, (800) 639-4099,
http://www.chelseagreen.com
Grassroots Marketing is a great book for
small business owners who want to improve their company's marketing and do so
inexpensively. The book surveys nearly every marketing method known to
man.
Horowitz says that the average U.S. adult is exposed to about 2,000
marketing messages each day. So, entrepreneurs really need to make their message
stand out from the crowd. Further, Horowitz argues that the average small
business, individual, or organization needs to market very
inexpensively.
Horowitz summarizes marketing as: 1) Identifying your
target market; 2) Getting the right information and message to your market; and
3) Convincing the target customer to do business with your
company.
Horowitz discusses:
- Choosing a company name and how the
name impacts marketing
- Designing logos
- Writing press releases
-
Writing professional articles to market your business
- Using Yellow Page ads
effectively
- Direct mail: when it's effective and when it's not
- Bumper
stickers and billboards
- Radio and TV advertising via free publicity
-
Internet marketing and getting listed on search engines
- Affiliate
marketing
- Telemarketing
- Personal sales and mulitlevel marketing
-
Word-of-mouth referrals and networking to get them
- Branding and creating
'buzz'
The chapter about effective copyrighting is especially strong.
Horowitz expands the basic AIDA formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)
into ten points of effective copywriting.
Horowitz writes: "Great
Copywriting:
1. Catches the reader's attention with something
relevant;
2. Addresses the reader's fears, anxieties, and/or
aspirations;
3. Stresses specific benefits to the user, not the features that
leads to those benefits;
4. Offers to solve the reader's problem, in the most
specific terms possible;
5. Provides the reader with a chance to acquire
something of clear value-but only for a limited time;
6. Pulls the reader
toward immediate action;
7. Shows the consequences of failure to act;
8.
Includes solid, substantial validation of your claim by someone else ( a
customer, an expert);
9. Backs up claims with comparisons to competitors;
and
10. This should be obvious-provides the necessary order form, address,
and/or telephone number to allow the reader to move forward."
The
strength of the chapter about writing effective copy isn't surprising, given
that Horowitz is a professional copywriter who helps companies develop
advertising (http://www.frugalmarketing.com). Horowitz also helps entrepreneurs
plan marketing and publicity campaigns.
Grassroots Marketing gives many
resources throughout. Not every marketing method discussed in Grassroots
Marketing will be appropriate for your company. For example, while a plumber
will benefit greatly from a Yellow Page Ad (Horowitz says that people tend to
consult the Yellow Pages during emergencies among other occasions), other
entrepreneurs will benefit more from direct mail. And, while Horowitz says that
balloons with logos are best used to draw people to events, financial advisors
will probably not want to place their business logo on balloons.
Tapping
Into Wireless: The Savvy Investor's Guide To Profiting From The Wireless
Wave
Tom Taulli and Dave Mock
McGraw-Hill
P.O. Box 182604, Columbus, OH
43272
ISBN 0071384197, $27.95, Hardcover., http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/,
1-877-833-5524
Tapping Into Wireless is written for those who want to
invest in the high-growth area of wireless telecommunications. Entrepreneurs
entering the wireless industry and people interested in learning more about the
world of wireless will also benefit by reading this book.
Tapping Into
Wireless begins with a chapter about the history of wireless technology. Taulli
and Mock say we can understand the how's and why's of the industry by learning a
bit about the history of wireless. This will help us make better investment
decisions today.
After telling us about the advent of the telegraph and
the early adventures to lay transatlantic cable to allow continent-to-continent
communication, Taulli and Mock discuss Gugielmo Marconi's development of the
radio and the growth of amateur radio.
Surprisingly, nearly 100 years
ago, many people imagined that wireless would become the dominant personal
communication device. Because of the ability of waves travelling through air to
reach any location and the expense of laying cable from every point to every
point, it seemed logical that person-to-person communication would be
radio-based, not cable-based.
Yet, only recently have wireless personal
communications become a consumer reality. Taulli and Mock explain that the
wireless future had to wait until electronic advances allowed compact and
reliable wireless devices.
That didn't stop early promoters of wireless
from starting companies promising a bright future and guaranteeing huge
investment returns. Taulli and Mock discuss the wireless telegraph investment
bubble of the early 1900's.
Taulli and Mock write: "Unscrupulous stock
promoters exaggerated this theoretical advantage of radio way beyond reason at
the time....it demonstrates what can happen when a revolutionary technology
emerges in a capitalist society. Truly, there was a very real and promising
industry in wireless telegraphy and telephony; it only needed more time to
develop. The problems with stock scams at this time actually had more to do with
corrupt financiers than with the radio industry...." Eventually, government
regulators shut down the fraudulent companies.
Taulli and Mock explain a
successful investor in technology must distinguish hype from reality. This
doesn't imply the need to have an engineer's level of understanding of wireless
technology.
Taulli and Mock write: "...knowledge of wireless technology
may not be a significant advantage for the investor. The technology buffs who
have the inside scoop on how all this stuff works often make no better
investment choices than those who are clueless in this area."
The authors
explain that too many other factors affect wireless investments, including
government regulation, politics, communication standards adoptions, buy-in from
industry leaders, intellectual property management, and consumer
taste.
For example, Taulli and Mock tell us that, as radio grew in
America, the U.S. government felt a foreign corporation shouldn't control the
airwaves, so the U.S. government put pressure on Marconi to sell its U.S. radio
interests to an American-based company. Overnight, G.E. and RCA became the
dominant radio companies in America. By this example, the authors alert wireless
investors to the politics and regulations affecting their investments.
We
also learn about the formation of the Federal Communications Commission to
manage the frequencies available to radio. Because unregulated use of the
airwaves led to overlapping signals as multiple users tried to communicate on
the same frequency, the government decided it should regulate the spectrum of
available frequencies. The FCC decided it would own the air frequencies and
auction off the rights to broadcast on various parts of the electromagnetic
spectrum in various geographical regions.
Taulli and Mock tell us that,
in 2001, the FCC earned nearly $17 billion from spectrum auctions. Further, the
authors say the U.S. government will earn even more through such auctions in the
future. (I've heard of entrepreneurs and investors buying auctioned airwave
rights and reselling them for a profit. In one case, I believe a $100,000
investment earned a few tens of millions of dollars. So, some people have
literally become rich by legally buying and reselling thin air!)
In a
chapter about investing in wireless network operators (i.e., the companies that
provide access to wireless communication), Taulli and Mock tell us that spectrum
licenses are an important investment metric (POPs).
Taulli and Mock
write: "Licensed POP's include the population covered by spectrum licenses. If a
service provider has a license to 10 MHz of spectrum in Atlanta, Georgia, then
the population of this area is included in its figure for licensed POPs... . The
owning of rights to spectrum is basically wireless real estate...
."
Taulli and Mock cover many other important investment measurements
when evaluating wireless network providers, such as revenue per user, customer
turnover, and the average cost to add a new customer.
Wireless network
providers aren't the only way to profit by investing in wireless. Other chapters
of Tapping Into Wireless discuss wireless IPO's, investing in wireless equipment
and component manufacturers, mutual funds that invest in telecommunications,
ways to invest in foreign wireless companies, and knowing when to sell a
telecommunications stock. Angel investors will find the chapter about investing
in smaller, private, wireless companies valuable.
Entrepreneurs will
especially enjoy the chapter about wireless enterprise solutions. Basically,
"enterprise solutions" involve helping companies use technology to become more
efficient or to do things in new ways. Such enterprise-solution companies
usually don't provide wireless network access nor manufacture components.
Rather, they usually develop database systems and computer code allowing a
company to use wireless devices in a productive way.
Taulli and Mock
point out that wireless access to the Internet will create huge opportunities
for entrepreneurs and those who provide wireless enterprise
solutions.
Taulli and Mock write: "The combination of wireless
capabilities with the resources available on the Internet has every entrepreneur
chomping at the bit to develop something hundreds of millions of cellular phone
owners would pay to have....The merging of the Internet and wireless
communications has tremendous potential to change the lives and cultures of
people around the globe... Not only do we have a global network that stores vast
amounts of information at various nodes, we also have the capability to access
one of those nodes from virtually anywhere on the planet."
Peter
Hupalo
Reviewer
David's Bookshelf
Reclaim Your Life
Jim Donovan
Lahaska
Publishing
ISBN: 0-96505348-2, $9.95,
www.lahaskapublishing.com.
Simple wisdom in a pocket-sized package --
that's Reclaim Your Life by Jim Donovan. There are no surprises and no gimmicks,
just plain honest wisdom. If you seek something new that you have never heard
of, this is not the book for you. If you seek a handy little reminder of the
timeless truths that somehow get lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday
stress and panic to get out the door and try to catch the bus so you won't be
late for work where that pile of paper is threatening to fall off your desk and
cause a workplace injury Well, let's just say that if real life sometimes gets
in your way, this book is an excellent reminder of where that way is.
In
a slim 84 pages, Donovan offers us the opportunity to "claim our divine birth
rite to have a life of peace, joy, happiness, excitement, health, love,
prosperity, fun, passion and abundance." As I read Reclaim Your Life, I
revisited most of the themes of my own book (a much larger volume focusing just
on the "happiness" part).
I found myself nodding my head to the beat. No,
I haven't switched to a music review -- books have beats, too. The good ones,
the ones that help reveal the truths we hold inside, often cause our heads to
nod to their beats.
Let me leave you with one "beat" that caused my head
to nod: "Whatever the passion within you, let it out. Life is too fragile and
uncertain to postpone your dreams, hoping that 'someday, I'll really begin to
live my life.'"
If you are serious about your life, I recommend this book
for light, but serious, reading.
Harkening: A Collection Of Stories
Remembered
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
PublishAmerica/AmErica House
Publishing
PO Box 151, Frederick, MD 21705-0151
ISBN: 1-59129-550-5,
$19.95, www.publishamerica.com
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's latest wonder
arrived in my mailbox just when I was already trying to squeeze 30-hour days
into my paltry 24. But how could I let something from such a gifted writer just
sit there? Carolyn Howard-Johnson writes like an onion with each layer she peels
craftily coaxing tears from her readers' eyes.
Harkening is one such
tear-jerker -- a collection of Depression era tales from her mother's childhood
and memories of her own. Some sad, some happy, all heartwarming.
There is
something eerie about this book, something that keeps the reader off balance. It
is clearly an autobiography, both of Howard-Johnson and of her mother. It says
as much up front: "Stories can easily lose themselves without a
teller-of-stories to keep them alive. A family needs a bard."
But
sometimes I get the feeling that this book may be as much fiction as reality --
like the feeling some people get that they are outside themselves watching their
comings and goings from afar. Two quotations she places up front lend credence
to my theory.
And some of her tales are clearly not autobiographical or
are they? Well, the names seem to change and she writes some in the third
person, but maybe they are autobiographical just the same. I so dearly wanted to
ask the author. But I held back so as to take the stories at face value, just as
you, dear reader, will when you get the chance.
Harkening -- or at least
some of the tales in Harkening -- picks up where This Is The Place left off. (If
you have not yet read This Is The Place, I highly recommend it.) There are
moments of triumph. There are scenes of tension. Many of the stories are seen
through the eyes of a child, through the innocence of youth, and through superb,
descriptive writing that makes the reader feel like he is there in the
story.
Howard-Johnson finally reveals the source of her magical writing
skills when she calls her mother "The most avid of these
story-tellers."
If I could describe Harkening in one word, it would be
"captivating!" Enjoy every story.
David Leonhardt,
Reviewer
http://www.TheHappyGuy.com
Ninave's Bookshelf
A Shadow On The Glass: Book One, The View
From The Mirror
Ian Irvine
Aspect Fantasy/Warner Books
1271 Avenue of
the Americas, New York, NY 10020
0446609846, $6.99 US, 654 pages including
glossary
A Shadow On The Glass is the first installment of The View From
The Mirror, a four volume series. In this part, we discover the world of
Santhenar, a place where, long ago, four races converged to fight over a magical
flute that opened the doorways between their worlds. At the apex of the final
battle, the flute is lost, and the doorway between the worlds is closed forever.
It is a world where these races live in uneasy peace, the wounds still not
scabbed over, where Mancers fight each other for the one relic that might allow
the way between the worlds to open again, where the ultimate evil lurks in his
prison cell, waiting patiently to be free once more.
Llian of Zain is a
student Chronicler who, at his graduation, tells a new version of The Histories,
or the tales of the people on Santhenar. He has discovered papers that changes
some of the key aspects of the final battle, and is bold enough to tell it. Any
change in The Histories is bound to cause controversy, and Llian gets it in
handfuls. One day he is a Master Chronicler, ready to take on the world with his
great tale, the next he is stripped of his stipend and forced to fend for
himself. His hunger to find out the truth of his tale, to forge a new
masterwork, causes him even more trouble. His is expelled, but given one last
chance to redeem himself. He is sent to find Karan of Bannador, to lead her and
what she carried to Mendark the magister.
Karan is a sensitive - a
blending of the races trapped on Santhenar. Her talent is that she can link with
people's minds, feel the presence of people from a distance. Years ago she was
captured and put into slavery, only to be freed by the enigmatic Maigraith. The
price will come later, Maigraith assures her, and it does. Maigraith knows the
secret of Karan's gift, and needs her to help her break into a unbreachable
citadel, to gain a relic for her mistress. Karan is reluctant to leave her home,
but her vow to repay Maigraith's past kindness binds her to the task.
The
relic - a mirror that may be the only way to re-make the paths between the
worlds, will become Karan and Llian's greatest burden. Drawn together, they run
from their enemies - Karan trying to decide who is worthy enough, who is wise
enough, to be the final possessors of the mirror, Llian trying to find the
materials to write the greatest tale ever spoken.
I found the story
fascinating . Irvine's strength is in his characters. Llian is sweet,
intelligent, a little full of himself, but entirely wonderful to hang around
with, even if he does make some grave, and sometimes somewhat frustrating,
mistakes. Karan is practical, a good, resourceful heroine that manages to see
them both through some truly terrifying situations. There's many interesting
relationships. For example, Maigraith is torn between the duty to the cold
Mancer who raised her and the strange affections she feels for the man who
imprisoned her. Things like this should be interesting to watch as the series
progresses. I also loved the settings - so different from our world, yet every
once in awhile Irvine places a material or an item in - like rubber, or a house
that sounds like nothing less than a dilapidated Victorian that, rather than
stopping you, makes you feel even closer to the world and its
inhabitants.
The next two books in the series, The Tower on the Rift and
Dark is the Moon are already out. I would compare this series quite favorably
with the works of George R.R. Martin and Terry Goodkind. I'm looking forward to
finding out what happens next.
Black River
G.M. Ford
William
Morrow
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
ISBN 0380978741, $23.95,
308 pages, http://www.harpercollins.com
Frank Corso is a former reporter
and crime book writer who has long desired to see Nicholas Balagula behind bars.
He has seen the best efforts of some of the brightest stars of the Attorney
Generals Office try and fail to convict him twice. Now he is the only outsider
allowed to sit in on the trail that has sparked so much public anger, on the
third and last try. Balagula is said the be behind the collapse of a hospital
which killed 63 people, most of them children. He allegedly made substantial
cutbacks in the materials that went into the building which, when the San
Andreas fault made a tiny shift that hardly anyone noticed, caused the building
to topple like a house of cards. Balagula has long maintained his innocence, and
anyone saying otherwise is effectively dealt with.
The book begins with
an innovative twist. A pair of hit men are scouting out their mark, who,
according to his schedule, is sitting inside his truck, about to go to work.
They soon discover the man they're supposed to kill has already been shot.
Instead of being happy, they decide that they have to earn their money by hiding
the body and the truck according to plan. The truck is discovered months later,
which happens to bring Meg Dougherty into the scene. She's Frank's ex-love, and
a friend. When she is discovered in her own wrecked car, he suspects that
someone may be after her. She's suffered terrible injuries, and he has to wait
until she recovers before he can find out what she knows.
These
interwoven plots make for a really exciting story. The trial, the hit men, and
Meg are tangled together, and Frank's determination to figure out why makes for
incredible reading. He admits to having a high morality, and so it makes sense
that his love for her and his desire to see justice weigh equally in his
motivations. He's a good character. A little quick tempered, but in a way that's
a reliving factor, for the reader, rather than a detrimental flaw in the
character. He's chivalrous and driven, and these attributes mixed in with the
sort of wistfulness he feels for Meg make him immensely likable. Meg is another
interesting character, despite her limited role. She has a very sad and unusual
past...one of her ex-lovers, when she dumped him, drugged her and tattooed every
inch of her body in an obscene act of revenge. This odd fact drew me to her more
surely than her already sad fate, because one can not help but wonder how it
would feel to live with a body permanently marked like that. This, along with
her other character points, makes her an equally powerful character despite the
fact she only has enough "on page" time to seem like a minor one, and infuses
the actions of Frank, where they have to do with her, an air of credibility and
chivalry.
I spent the whole day reading this book. It really drew me in,
and kept me going. This is the second book Ford has written with Frank Corso as
a character, the first is called Fury.
Ninave Lake
Reviewer
Lowe's Bookshelf
Gun Shy, 2nd Edition
Lori L.
Lake
Renaissance Alliance Publishing, Inc.
PMB 289, 8691 9th Ave., Port
Arthur, Tx 77642
ISBN: 1930928432, $18.95, 396 pages;
www.rapbooks.biz
Lake's Gun Shy is the story of two somewhat reluctant
women who finally learn to believe in themselves and each other enough to commit
to love. Covering just over a year in the lives of these women, the novel reads
like a season's worth of episodes from a television show that lesbians might
wish was on TV. The story opens with Desiree Reilly, a formidable cop over six
feet tall with dark hair and startling blue eyes, capturing a pair of serial
rapists and in the process saving two young women, Sara and JayLynn. It is a
meeting that electrifies both JayLynn and Desiree. JayLynn Savage, a lesbian in
her mid-20s, decides to become a police officer in order to get to know Desiree,
the hero of her dreams, literally. Lake follows Savage through the academy and
most of her rookie year on the St. Paul Police Department.
Gun Shy is
also the story of Desiree who is struggling with the loss of her partner and
good friend, Ryan. Early in her career Dez was a conquest for a rather
superficial older female cop who apparently made a hobby of bedding young dyke
officers. Hurt and embarrassed, Dez has made a rule not to date cops. Presumed
by many of the other cops to be lesbian, Dez has rarely dated at all, let alone
been seriously involved with a woman for almost eight years. Already known as
the "Ice Queen" the tall and intimidating Dez has withdrawn even more since
Ryan's death.
Reilly becomes Field Training Officer for Savage and the
two women begin a long complicated dance toward friendship and love. Along the
way, the bright and innovative, if diminutive Jay becomes a good police officer.
She learns to develop her own attributes in her work, deals with the trauma her
first shooting and the pries the elusive Dez out of her shell. Meanwhile Dez
comes to grips with Ryan's death. Over the course of the year the partners learn
a great deal about each other and themselves. And the reader learns about life
as a patrol officer in St. Paul as well as being treated to an inside view of
the world of amateur bodybuilding.
Gun Shy is an engaging, readable book.
This second edition includes some editorial clean up that improves the flow of
the novel and features new cover art. The characters are interesting and the
action drew this reader into the story. Amusingly, Lake seems to have created
two lesbians that are the antithesis of the standard u-haul joke. This reviewer
was relieved when Jay and Dez finally got together! Overcoming the barriers to
expressing their love is the theme of Gun Shy. The sequel, "Under the Gun" is
due out this fall. It will be interesting to see how she depicts Jay and Dez as
a couple. In the meantime, treat yourself to a copy of Gun Shy.
Coming
Home
Lois Cloarec Hart
Renaissance Alliance Publishing, 2001
PMB 238,
8691 9th Ave, Port Arthur, Tx 77642
ISBN: 1930928505, $ 20.99, 380 pages,
www.rapbooks.biz
Almost 25 years old and just finished with her Masters
in English, Terry has taken a job with Canada Post delivering the mail. A job
that she hopes will give her the time to think about and write her first novel.
One day on her route, Terry is asked to help a woman lift her quadriplegic
husband who has fallen. Terry is quite taken by Rob and Jan, and their
respective attitudes toward dealing with Rob's advanced MS.
When Terry
sees Jan at a local park a few days later, she strikes up a conversation with
her. This is the beginning of a special friendship between Terry and Jan as well
as Rob. For some 15 years, Terry learns, Jan has been taking care of Rob as his
health increasingly declines. Jan's escape and comfort, during these years as a
caregiver, are her books. She has a voracious appetite for reading a range of
fiction genres. A mutual love of books becomes an important common ground for
the two women.
Once an athletic hotshot pilot for the Canadian Air Force,
Rob continues to maintain a deceptively lively attitude. A charming extrovert he
enjoys the opportunities to socialize with Terry and her family. Rob's point of
view is rarely known, although his personal history and tales of his exploits
are often provided. This creates an interesting impression of Rob that reflects
some of his distancing with life.
Intelligent, kind and generous, Terry
can also have a quick temper that sometimes prompts her to speak without
thinking. She is perhaps the most rounded character in a well depicted cast. Her
point of view is prominent and her interactions with her two roommates and
extensive family are followed over the course of almost a year. During that
time, Terry comes to realize that her feelings for Jan are not entirely
platonic. Meanwhile, Jan begins to acknowledge feelings that she's long ignored
regarding her own orientation. Honorable, neither woman will betray their
obligations or Rob's trust.
There's a popular saying that experience is
what you get when you don't get what you want. Suffice it to say that Terry gets
a great deal of experience over the course of Coming Home. Ordinarily, titles
that deal with such a "lovers' triangle" do not appeal to this reviewer because
of the amount of angst involved. Unsurprisingly, Coming Home has a great deal of
that angst. However, it is also a very touching and well-told story. Hart has
populated Coming Home with realistic, interesting characters and she provides a
loving tribute to persons like Rob who struggle against diseases like MS and the
caregivers that give them love, care and a dignified life. Furthermore there are
some charming insights to living in Calgary, particularly its lesbian community.
If you're in the mood for a good tear jerker, Coming Home is worth your
while.
Slay Me Tender
Jenny Scholten
New Victoria Publishers
P.
O. Box 27 Norwich, VT 05055
ISBN: 1892281155, $ 11.95, 2001, 216
pp.
Twenty five years old, Aubrey is worried about how much longer she
can work as an exotic dancer. Her knees are aching and her breasts are sagging.
Actually, Aubrey claims they've always sagged. Nevertheless, this awareness of
the vulnerability of her likelihood to her physique and the extreme measures
other dancers go to, particularly in regard to breast enhancements, are central
themes to Slay Me Tender. The novel opens with Naughtylands weekly feature
dancer (usually porn stars from out of town), Plushious Velvett, complaining to
Aubrey about the hardening the stars very large breast implants. When Plushious
disappears, leaving part of her wardrobe and fails to appear at her next
scheduled club, Aubrey's natural curiosity gets peaked. Then she finds a gun,
dark poems written by Plushious and what appears to be a bloody breast implant
in the building where Plushious was staying, Aubrey can't help but start looking
into the disappearance.
Scholten portrays the colorful and seamy aspects
of the housing shortage in San Francisco and the gentrification of the infamous
Tenderloin district with amusing detail. Her strengths are her characters and
sense of humor, particularly irony. Aubrey shares a flat with four other people.
Its a wonderful, motley group. There's Vivian who is working on her thesis and
exploring non-monogamy much to the strain of her relationship with the quiet
Zan. There's the beautiful and vibrant artist, Geoffrey who is "tri-sexual" (as
in he'll try anything sexual) as well as his current, and frequently present,
boyfriend, Gregor-with-the-red-Renault-convertible. And finally, there is shy,
neurotic and modest Hugh. With his photographic memory Hugh provides most of the
roommates with some fashion accessories from thrift store where he works and
looks after everyone including Aubrey's cat, Hodge. Added to Aubrey's regular
roommates are the feature dancers who are temporarily staying at Aubrey's place
(along with their manager or body guard or girlfriend, etc.). These are just a
few of the amusing, yet realistic and compassionately drawn characters in Slay
Me Tender.
A fiercely independent young woman of Southern white trash
ancestry, Aubrey continues to be ambivalent about her job. She defends the
choice of employment. "With what other job could a history major without
computer skills make three hundred dollars a day? (page 26) When a roommate
makes disparaging comments about "those women," she points out that she is a
worker in the sex industry. Yet Aubrey is realistic about the potential problems
of the job. She worries about how long much longer her body will be "profitable"
as a dancer, and the possible dangers of overly friendly customers. She
carefully avoids being in debt to the older police officer who is a regular at
Naughtyland. Yet she is a constant witness to the victims of the industrys
"victimless crimes."
At one point, Aubrey is surprised at her own
stereotyping of customers' wives. She realizes that her assumptions are a
"buying into the systems" view of these women. Aubreys willingness to self
examine, makes her character more attractive. Scholten's sardonic humor takes
the bitter edge off the futility of the situation for the residents and workers
of the Tenderloin. Despite a range of offers, Aubrey, ironically continues her
life of celibacy, futher disrupting those annoying stereotypes of exotic
dancers.
This second Aubrey Lyle mystery is better than the first. The
plot flows more smoothly. Scholten creates an interesting hybrid mystery. Her
characters and plots have a very traditional amateur sleuth mystery quality.
However, her focus on the sex industry and related organized crime are subject
matter that is far more typical of "hard boiled" noir detective mysteries. She
even manages to incorporate an almost slapstick car chase scene. This
combination works for Scholten and makes for often amusing and occasionally
provocative reading. I will be looking forward to further developments in
Aubrey's world.
MJ Lowe
Reviewer
Paul's Bookshelf
Al-Jazeera
Mohammed El-Nawawy and Adel
Iskandar,
Westview Press
5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301),
2002,
ISBN 0813340179, $24.00, 228 pages,
http://www.westviewpress.com
Al-Jazeera is the all-Arabic TV news channel
which burst on to the international scene in the wake of September 11 and the
war in Afghanistan. Its unfettered access to that country during the war and its
showing of the bin Laden tapes made it an automatic force on the world
stage.
Based in the Gulf state of Qatar, it came from the remnants of the
BBC Arabic TV service. With the help of startup money from the Emir of Qatar,
Al-Jazeera was to have complete editorial independence.
In a part of the
world where the press is usually government controlled, Al-Jazeera is not afraid
to get specific and name names. At one time or another, it has been criticized
or condemned by seemingly every government in the Arab world, for broadcasting
things that the local government would prefer not be broadcast. Every local
editorial of condemnation and every denial of press credentials to Al-Jazeera
reporters just increases its audience all over the world by
satellite.
One of the things that Al-Jazeera is most known for is its
talk shows, especially a nightly, two-hour show called The Opposite Direction.
Two guests appear on the show, with totally opposite opinions on a certain
issue, and with help from live phone calls, the sparks fly. Even by American TV
standards, things get pretty loud and lively. Arab governments have noticed, and
have begun imitating the format on their tame and boring government TV
channels.
Even though Al-Jazeera is an Arab TV channel, it has tried very
hard to be impartial, hosting members of the Bush Administration, after
September 11, and government officials from Israel.
For those who want to
decide for themselves if Al-Jazeera is a legitimate news broadcaster or a
terrorist mouthpiece, this book is highly recommended. It's comprehensive,
clearly written and is quite enlightening.
Stardoc
S.L. Viehl
Roc
Books
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014
ISBN 0451457730, 394 pages,
$6.99, http://www.penguinputnam.com
Cherijo Grey Veil is a brilliant
Earth doctor who, to escape a domineering father, accepts a position at the
FreeClinic on the planet Kevarzangia Two, about as far away as one can get. It's
inhabited by over 200 species who live in separate colonies, and only a tiny
fraction of them are humanoid.
From the moment she arrives, she has to
prove herself with each and every patient. She experiences the egos and varying
levels of competence among the staff inherent in any hospital. The equipment is
in desperate need of replacement because the home worlds of the planet's
inhabitants are not very sympathetic.
Cherijo meets, and falls for, a
Jorenian, a tall blue humanoid, named Kao Jorin. They bond (get married) and she
becomes an official part of the Clan.
One day, a person comes to the
Clinic with symptoms resembling tuberculosis. According to their medical tests,
there's no germ involved, no virus, nothing. Cherijo wants to declare a
quarantine, but Dr. Mayer, the Chief of Staff, says no without something more
specific to go on. A quarantine is declared after it becomes a full-scale
epidemic, with hundreds dying of this disease that isn't really a disease, and
Cherijo is the only one on staff not affected. Kao Jorin, Cherijo's mate, is
among the dead.
Her father, who hasn't stopped trying to bring her back
to Earth, puts enough pressure on the League of Worlds to have Cherijo relieved
of her position at the FreeClinic and returned to Earth, sedated and restrained
if necessary. Just before that is to happen, she is rescued by other members of
Kao's Clan and taken aboard their ship. The League wants her back real bad, and
the Jorenians are just as determined to not give her back.
This one is
really good. The best part of this novel is that the aliens are really alien,
and not just humanoids with strange skin coloring. It certainly feels like a
worthy successor to James White's Sector General series. There's a good story
here, too. It's worth reading.
The Perseids And Other Stories
Robert
Charles Wilson
Tor Books
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
ISBN
0312873743, 2000, $12.95, 224 pages, http://www.tor.com
This group of
speculative fiction stories take place in, and around, the city of Toronto,
Canada.
An amateur astronomer buys a telescope at a local shop, and
starts dating the female sales clerk. With a little hallucinogenic help, what
starts as a relationship story turns into a tale of the next stage of human
evolution. In 1950s California, young girl who claims to have been visited by
aliens and is spending the summer with an uncle has a strange encounter with
astronomer Edwin Hubble. Another story is about an ever-changing group of
friends who get together for some intellectual conversation. One person says,
"Invent a religion."
A writer of New Age books has a genuine encounter
with the extraordinary, courtesy of a mirror that shows very interesting things
to those who stand in front of it. In another story, a man speculates a being as
far above humans as we are above a house cat among us right now, but we wouldn't
know it. At a local used bookstore called Finders (locale for several of these
stories) the man bought a rock as a paperweight. It's actually a scrying rock,
which lets the holder of the rock see into their future.
I loved these
stories. They could be set in any large city, they're sort of like Twilight Zone
stories (a mixture of fantasy, science fiction and horror), and they are very
thought-provoking. Wilson is one of my favorite science fiction writers, so I
don't claim to be totally unbiased, but this is highly recommended.
Paul
Lappen
Reviewer
Shelley's Bookshelf
Trace Their Shadows
Ann Turner
Cook
iUniverse.com, Inc.
5220 S. 16th St., Suite 200, Lincoln, NE
68512
ISBN: 0595204104, $16.95 US/$27.95 CAN, GOTOBUTTON BM_1_
www.iuniverse.com
Ann Turner Cook was one of the celebrated Gerber babies
at the beginning of her life. She is presently a retired English teacher, living
in Central Florida, where she researches for her mystery writing with her
husband. She acted as an emissary for the Gerber Company and has made several
guest appearances on national talk and news shows, including The Today Show;
Good Morning, America; Entertainment Tonight; Sally Jesse Raphael; and the Rosie
O'Donnell Show. She is just as cute now as she was as a Gerber
baby.
Brandy O'Bannon is trying to save her job with the Tavares Beacon
by writing an interesting feature article for her editor, Mr. Tyler. It concerns
an old mansion that is decaying and about to be sold to a developer. Brookfield
Able bequeathed the old mansion to his sister Sylvania, with the understanding
that she could sell it if she so desired. There are rumors that the mansion is
haunted, and the tale of a bizarre drowning forty-five years ago adds to the
mystery. Brandy enlists the aid of Sylvania's grand-nephew, architect John Able,
to gain access to Sylvania and the mansion's sad and eerie history. John and
Brandy connect after sharing life-threatening experiences as they "look around"
the mansion for artifacts and find human remains:
"At the same instant,
the moccasin's fangs sank into John's hand. She gave a sob, sprang out of the
boat, and rushed toward John as the moccasin drew back and slid over the edge of
the pier into the water. John had dropped to his knees, supporting his wounded
arm with the other hand."
Ann Turner Cook's twenty-six years of teaching
high school literature shines through in her writing. The plot is first-rate;
characters are people who are easy to relate to and care about; the action is
nonstop; and the denouement is excellent. Ms. Cook intertwines a sad but
wonderful ghost story into her plot, which keeps the reader guessing from page
one until the delightful finale. I got totally caught up in her tale and
couldn't put the book down! I personally wish I could have experienced Ann T.
Cook's teaching, because I'll bet she was a superb teacher. Trace Their Shadows
is an entertaining mystery and ghost story that can't help but
please.
The Law Of Falling Bodies
Edmund X. DeJesus
iUniverse.com,
Inc.
5220 S. 16th St., 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595202004, $17.95
US/$29.95 CAN, GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ www.iuniverse.com
Edmund X. DeJesus is a
native of Cranston, Rhode Island. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics, and an M.A.
and Ph.D. in Physics. He has taught at Middle Tennessee State University and
Boston University, has worked as a programmer, a researcher, and an editor of
BYTE magazine. He is currently a freelance writer, and The Law Of Falling Bodies
is his premiere mystery.
Mark Napoli is a physics graduate student at a
fictitious university somewhere in New England in the 1970's. The law of the
land is that professors rule on high, with graduate students acting as their
minions, whom they may or may not enlighten with enough of an education to
eventually gain their Ph.D.'s. Of course the system is rife for corruption, and
a particularly nasty professor, by the name of Speen (whom we can't help but
think of as Professor Spleen) is found murdered, his body apparently tossed from
either the roof or a window of the physics building.
Mark is instantly
interviewed by the police, and uses his genius to help them solve the crime
(beginning with a physics demonstration to Mark's newest crush, Lt. Rachel
Trask, of why Spleen had to have been launched out a window):
"'The roof
overhangs the building by seven and a half feet,' I began. 'Speen's body, the
center of it, was only three and a half feet from the building. The head was
even closer, but that may not matter. It is impossible for the body to have
fallen inward, toward the building, from the edge of the roof. So any witness
who says that's what happened is lying. Speen couldn't have been out on that
roof at all.'"
DeJesus launches an intensely funny, poignant, and
entertaining first mystery. Mark Napoli is one of the sweetest heroes this
reviewer has come across. He is engaging in his eccentric genius, fantasy love
life state, and the reader is cheering for him every step of the way. DeJesus'
description of academic life with its misfit characters is accurate and
hilarious. The Law Of Falling Bodies begs for a sequel from an immensely
talented first-time author. This book is a great read, with lots of thrills and
spills; a surprise denouement; and a bittersweet conclusion.
The Jericho
Flower
Stephen F. Wilcox
Mystery and Suspense Press/iUniverse.com,
Inc.
5220 S. 16th St., Suite 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595215092,
$18.95
A former newspaperman, Stephen F. Wilcox now runs an online
newspaper, The Wilcox Gazette. His prior novels, The Twenty-Acre Plot and The
Painted Lady, drew rave reviews from the likes the the San Francisco Chronicle
and Publishers Weekly. Niagra Fall precedes The Jericho Flower, and all books
seethe with murderous plots, quick wit, and rapacious humor.
Elias
Hackshaw has a talent for stumbling onto murder. In this fourth installment, he
happens upon a dead con man, a missing gypsy princess (named Bimbo Wanka, which
brings to mind a picture of Gene Wilder, crazy-eyed and ranting in the chocolate
factory), a former high school crush, a jealous cop, and his own unique
perspective to ensnare himself in the middle of what at first appears to be the
"offing" of a cold-hearted con artist. Elias keeps digging at the story, in part
to free himself from beatings from Bimbo's overzealous brothers, and in part
because that it's what he does best:
"But all my nocturnal cogitating
hadn't factored in a role for the Koons and, frankly, I didn't see where they
could possibly fit into the picture. The Koons in cahoots with the Hemfords? It
would make for the oddest of odd couples, the uptight, overachieving,
image-conscious Koons and the profane, slothful, lowlife Hemfords. I mean,
picture Ozzie and Harriet playing bridge with Bonnie and Clyde.
Wilcox is
an absolutely first-rate writer, with enough picturesque metaphors to make up
for the brawn he assures the reader he lacks. He does have quite an active
libido, which makes for some strange bedfellows as he embellishes his already
multi-faceted, character-laden tale with his own foibles as he stumbles towards
a raucous, followed by a serious, denouement. Suffice to say Hackshaw emerges
with his sense of humor intact; immensely satisfied with his own devilish
methods of revenge and detective work. The Jericho Flower is a well-crafted,
imaginative tale that this reader wished could go on for much longer. It's a
great read, and Wilcox deserves acclaim and kudos festooned with big sales for
this delicious story.
Dark Angel
Ronald E. Baird
iUniverse.com,
Inc.
5220 S. 16th., Ste. 200, Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595179754, $14.95
US/$24.95 CAN, www.iuniverse.com
Ron Baird is an award winning writer who
has specialized in environmental writing, Gulf War Syndrome, and fly fishing.
Hailing from Boulder, Colorado, he makes the mountains his home and they figure
fully in his first mystery.
Aaron Hemingway is an interesting mix. He is
a former basketball star, Vietnam vet, and Denver cop who got too close to the
evil he was trying to wash out as an undercover narcotics agent. He has a
daughter, Cassie, whom he hasn't seen in years and a former wife, who sounds
like an intense career marm. He is living in Jack Springs and workers for the
local newspaper, run by a woman who is interested in reporting some actual
news.
Jack Springs has a diverse population; anything from old miners to
cowboys and old hippies, with a few survivalists thrown in for good measure.
When a new mine is proposed by a shady company with a bad track record, Aaron
finds himself in the middle of the quarrel. One of the local anti-mine activists
is murdered and her body is dumped in front of the newspaper office. Someone
appears to be stalking Aaron, just as he is reunited with his
daughter:
"'Cassie, what are you doing here?' Tears welled up in my eyes
and before she could answer, I reached down, swept her into my arms like holding
a baby bird to my chest, its heart beating wildly. Or maybe it was my heart. 'Oh
Daddy,' she whimpered. Then the dam burst and she cried huge, breath-robbing
sobs as she held me tighter and tighter."
Dark Angel is an extremely
well-written novel with tons of beautiful metaphors and a slap-bang plot.
Baird's characters are finely wrought, and the action is non-stop. The backdrop
is the gorgeous mountains of Colorado, with its diverse population all
conspiring against one another. Baird's passages range from utterly beautiful
and simple descriptions of nature to nerve-wracking accounts of Aaron going into
battle to save his daughter from the bad guys. He has a highly developed
socio-political conscience that forms an integral part of this very timely plot
about. This is one heck of a tale, and hopefully Mr. Baird has a follow-up that
he is presently writing.
Even In Darkness
Jeffrey Aran
Leever
Writers Club Press/iUniverse.com, Inc.
5220 S. 16th St., Suite 200,
Lincoln, NE 68512
ISBN: 0595208649, $14.95, GOTOBUTTON BM_1_
www.iuniverse.com
Jeffrey Aran Leever is a publications manager for a
nonprofit organization in Colorado. An English/writing major from the University
of Nebraska (Kearney), he presently lives in Arvada, Colorado. He has
co-authored two published non-fiction books.
Colleges often have immense
power with the locals of the communities they serve...power which can be turned
for dark purposes. When Jay Downing's friend Reed Manley doesn't appear for a
preappointed "night on the town," and some strange girl tries to lure Jay into
the University's long unused underground tunnels, Jay begins to fear for his
friend's life. The police treat Jay as if he is on drugs, and when Reed's body
appears outside of town, even the coroner seems to be in on the coverup. But it
is the professors at Jay's school in Stratton who act the most
bizarre:
"Jay looked again at his professor, and wondered what the man
knew. What pieces of the truth he held. It was as if Lanum was trying to hold
back something, and yet share it at the same time. As if there'd been something
Jay had done that gave Lanum reason for contempt. It had to have been something
independent of their never-quite-so-serious interactions in class. But
what?"
The idea that a university setting could be used for nefarious
purposes, and that professors (who, after all, are supposed to represent the
creme de la creme) could be arch-fiends stirs up a shiver of recognition in all
of us. (Who hasn't dreamt about not attending class and not knowing where their
final was?)
Even In Darkness is a well written, spine-tingling, Gothic,
Steven Kingish novel that grips the reader from page one. Leever's use of
uncertainty in speech, action, and tone puts the reader into a nervous state
from the beginning. It is an excellent tool to produce the results he wants,
which is to scare us to death and keep us turning those pages. Even In Darkness
is an great first effort in the genre for Leever, and presents him as a new
talent to be reckoned with. It is entertaining, scary, infuriating, and deeply
satisfying, all at once. A great read.
The Teed-Off Ghost
Lee
Tyler
Fithian Press
PO Box 1525, Santa Barbara, CA 93102
ISBN:
1564743896, $12.95, e-mail: dandd@danielpublishing.com
Lee Tyler is a
veteran travel writer and current member of the Golf Writers Association of
America. Other books include The Case Of The Missing Links.
Hawaii is
full of mystery and romance, and when Harry "Win" Winslow and June Jacobs (who
are self-described top golfing sleuths) are talked into watching over the new
Mauna Makai golf course for a week, they have no idea that they will be dealing
with more than just political mischief. Mauna Makai has an ancient wall, known
as "papohaku" running through it. The wall is both the draw and the originator
of many of the problems Martha Masters and Doug Banner have been having in
getting the golf course online in time for a big celebrity wedding and the
launching of the golf course:
"As they lurched along toward the first
hole, Ted said, 'I live up-country, up there, about ten miles away.' He pointed
to a mountain in the distance. 'See that rainbow? That's Waimea, where I live.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, I hear this golf course calling to me.
Like it's crying for help. So I get up at like two in the morning and get
dressed and drive down here to check on things. My wife thinks I'm crazy. Doug
here thinks I'm superstitious. Me, I'm just doing my job. And you know what?
Every time I've come down here, there's been something screwy. Like majorly
wrong.' He turned to Doug and said, 'Explain that with your mainland
logic.'"
Tyler has combined the game of golf, ancient Hawaiian mythology,
and a couple of scatterbrained sleuths to produce a whimsical tale about love,
ghosts, and the history and culture of Hawaii. The Teed-Off Ghost is an
excellent book to pull out on a cold winter day, as Tyler's passages about luaus
can't help but warm the spirit. Tyler pokes fun at the obsession of golfers,
while treating us to a warm Hawaiian experience complete with lots of
terminology for the uninitiated. She adds island mystery, an entertaining and
irascible ghost, and handsome natives who play havoc with the ladies' hearts.
The Teed-Off Ghost is more about getting into the native spirits than it is
about murder and mayhem, but it is a fun read nevertheless.
The Fractal
Murders
Mark Cohen
Muddy Gap Press
PO Box 1801, Boulder, CO
80306-1801
ISBN: 097189860X, $13.95
A Denver native, Mark Cohen
graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, then attended law
school at the University of Colorado. He practiced law in Nebraska, served as an
Air Force Judge Advocate, and now resides in Boulder, Colorado, where he serves
as a municipal judge. He has written several articles, and probably many more
briefs. The Fractal Murders is his first mystery.
Pepper Keane is a
retired attorney and former Federal Prosecutor who is now living and working in
Boulder with his two dogs, Buck and Wheat. He is hired by Jane Smyders, a math
professor at the University of Colorado when three of her colleagues who
specialize in her area of expertise, fractal geometry, are either murdered or
die by suspicious means. Pepper has enough of a background, having been a former
Marine JAG, and connections galore from past and present affiliations, to find
the common thread that connects the deaths. Pepper is an interesting man, with
an affection for Diet Coke, rock and roll, reading Philosophy, and exercise; an
unusual observation of sizing people up (often associated with what they are
wearing); and an encyclopedic knowledge and grasp of many subjects. Then there
is the attraction he feels for his new client, Jane Smyers:
"We continued
running and I thought about Jayne Smyers. She was pretty, no doubt about that.
And she was certainly smart. But some other quality was drawing me to her. She
possessed a certain perky optimism something I felt I lacked. I tried to put her
out of my mind, but I kept hearing that Sam Cooke song. Maybe by being an A
student, I could win her love for me.
The Fractal Murders is an intensely
entertaining book that is simply delicious to read. The action is well-paced,
Pepper's character is a nice package of enough brawn, brains, experience, logic,
and sensuality to make him a hero of sorts, but with enough flaws to make him a
believable character. The plot is well charted and covers many areas where Mr.
Cohen has something to teach that is interesting without overshadowing the
story. Pepper Keane is a nice mix of sensitivity and intellect, with just enough
experience to give his character depth. Cohen does a superb job of keeping the
reader guessing, and even the end poses a bit of a love puzzle. Cohen leaves us
clamoring for more. Exceptionally clear writing makes it a great
read!
The Self-Publishing Manual
Dan Poynter
Para Publishing
PO
Box 8206 Santa Barbara, CA 93118-8206
ISBN: 1568600739 $19.95
www.amazon.com
Dan Poynter is an entrepreneur who discovered publishing
when he spent eight years writing a book about parachutes and realized he
probably wouldn't find a publisher. He wrote a book in 1973 about hang gliding,
which became a best seller, and he was hooked. To date he has published over 80
books and revisions which have been translated into many languages. He has
written a book on what he calls "the new publishing model."
Anyone who is
even remotely involved in the publishing world knows that new authors don't
stand much of a chance with publishers. The lucky few who do succeed wait a long
time for their books to be published and often lose control of any profits. Mr.
Poynter correctly points to eight main reasons why someone would want to publish
their own book:
1. To make more money,
2. Speed
3. To keep control
of your book
4. No one will read your manuscript
5. Self-publishing is
good business
6. Self-publishing will help you think like a publisher
7.
You will gain self-confidence and self-esteem
8. Finally, you may have no
other choice."
The Self-Publishing Manual (How to Write, Print and Sell
Your Own Book) is a bible on how to write, start your own publishing company,
produce your book, advertise your book, decide what to charge, promote your
book, and how to find your audience and get it sold. Mr. Poynter is a very
concise and efficient writer who knows how to get his point across with his
audience's pocketbook in mind. He explains the pitfalls of the publishing
business and how to get the most bang for your buck. He does a great job of
explaining the distribution end of the business...something very few people
other than librarians and book distributors understand.
In short, Mr.
Poynter knows his stuff and can offer some very good advice to all the fledgling
authors out in book land. He even thoughtfully includes a chapter entitled
"Coping with Being Published," which will help the new author transition from
private to public life and what that entails. He includes a book calendar to
help the author stay focused and organized during the process, and ends with a
very useful appendix and glossary of publishing terms. This is an invaluable
book for anyone with enough courage to make the foray into publishing. Mr.
Poynter deserves a hearty thank you and congratulations from his grateful
disciples.
A Flash Of Emerald
J.M. Taylor
Blue Eagle Press
23745
Oakside Boulevard, Lutz, Florida 33549-6904
ISBN: 1879043084, $14.99,
GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ www.BlueEaglePress.com
J.M. Taylor has an impressive
array of talents, to say the least. He served with the 101st Airborne Division
as platoon leader and battalion commander; served at the Pentagon, in Germany,
the Middle East, and Vietnam. He is a trained scuba diver; parachute trained for
airborne assault; worked as a systems engineer; and finally, is a writer. In
short, he puts the rest of us to shame!
Harry Stoner began his career as
part of the failed attempt to free Cuba in the 1960's. Set in Southern Florida,
home of the Southern Cross and the life enhancing "flash of emerald" at sunset
for those lucky enough to catch it, Harry Stoner returns from his present
assignment in Virginia to help his daughter with a "problem." That problem turns
out to be her husband Lou's relatives, who have added drug trafficking to their
import/export business. Lou has stumbled upon the "goods," and now his Uncle
Lastero is threatening his life unless he joins in with the family "business."
That business turns into money for guns, and Stoner finds himself in the middle
of a plot to detonate a nuclear bomb, as well as being the object of the
terrorists' hatred. Harry himself has unwitting been the target of terrorists,
whose attempt to kill him resulted in the death of his wife, Lynn. To catch the
terrorists and save his daughter and husband from danger, he must return to his
military training, old friends, and keen thinking of a survivor:
"When
he's been really working, not just clerking, Stoner had squirreled away the old
identities, depositing small amounts of money in the scattered accounts and
making charges against the cards, keeping everything legit. Back then he'd
thought toward the future. He had almost let those days slip away. He thought
back. When was the last time he had used the bank card? The expiration date came
up next month. He had let the old days slide way back in his memory."
A
Flash Of Emerald is a hard-hitting, exciting spy game story with lots of
subplots, intense and charismatic characters, and enough action to glue the
reader to the book. Harry Stoner is a larger-than-life character who
singlehandedly takes on a Florida drug ring and a terrorist group at the same
time. Taylor lends his considerable expertise to the story to give the reader
insight into just what the military does to keep the bad guys out and to police
their own. A great read!
Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer
Bethany's Bookshelf
A Dress For Mona
Mark Perry
5th Epoch
Press
c/o Discover Writing Press
PO Box 264, Shoreham, VT
05770
1931492026 $10.00 www.adressformona.org
A Dress For Mona is a
powerful play by Mark Perry and based upon a true historical account. A Dress
For Mona is set in 1982 Iran when the Bahai (an offshoot of Islam and the
largest religious minority within Iran) were subjected to brutal prosecution,
imprisonment, and even murder. Young Mona is a Bahai believer, and thus a
primary target for arrest and execution. Her vision of three dresses, each
representing a different direction possible for her life, and her difficult
choices between faith and sacrifice are vividly presented in this gripping human
account, in many ways a modern-day mirror of the fanaticism portrayed in another
great classic, "The Crucible". A Dress For Mona is an absorbing,
thought-provoking, and at times emotionally wrenching drama which highly
recommended for either personal readings or community theater
productions.
The Woodchuck's Guide To Gardening
Ron Krupp
Whetstone
Books
8 Lyons Avenue, South Burlington, Vermont 05403
0915731053 $15.95
www.woodchuck37.com
The Woodchuck's Guide To Gardening by Vermont organic
gardener Ron Krupp, is a thoroughly "user friendly" guidebook written especially
for aspiring organic and biodynamic home gardeners. Embracing thrift and the
practical considerations as symbolized by the woodchuck, The Woodchuck's Guide
To Gardening provides a wealth of tips, tricks, and techniques for keeping soil
healthy, overseeing nutritious produce through all four seasons, foraging for
wild plants, teaching one's children to garden, and a great deal more. Written
in down-to-earth, accessible language for gardeners of all experience levels and
backgrounds, The Woodchuck's Guide To Gardening is an enthusiastically
recommended addition to personal and community library gardening reference
collections and supplemental reading lists.
Comadres
Nasario Garcia,
editor
Western Edge Press
126 Candelario Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico
87501
1889921157 $17.95
www.mountian-press/otherpages/catalog/WestEdge.htm
Compiled and edited by
Nasario Garcia (Professor of Languages, New Mexico Highlands University),
Comadres: Hispanic Women Of The Rio Puerco Valley is a unique and ground
breaking survey of Hispanic-American women and their manifold contributions to
the evolving culture of New Mexico, especially during the first ten years of
statehood. Ranch life, the evolution of Spanish dialects, the struggles to birth
and raise children, and so much more are accessibly covered in this unique
anthology of vignettes, anecdotes, and revealing glimpses into New Mexican daily
life. Black-and-white photographs enhance this outstanding collection of brief
yet personable tales, each of which is rendered in both Spanish and English.
Comadres is a very strongly recommended addition to Women's Studies, American
History, and Southwest Regional Studies academic reference collections and
supplemental reading lists.
Night Fishing In Galilee
Kenneth
Arnold
Cowley Publications
907 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA
02139
1561011959 $12.95 1-800-225-1534
In Night Fishing In Galilee:
The Journey Toward Spiritual Wisdom, Kenneth Arnold (Director of Communications,
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts) offers keen insights into the twenty-first
chapter of the Gospel According To John, as well as the author's own personal
journey of reflection, maturity, and spiritual evolution. From a close
examination of the ethics and life of the way of Jesus Christ, to
cross-comparison with other religions around the world, to thought-provoking
commentary on the truths expressed within psalms, Night Fishing In Galilee is an
intellectual, emotional, and faithful exploration of what it means to believe
and live in accordance with God.
Race And The Cosmos
Barbara A.
Holmes
Trinity Press International
PO Box 1321, Harrisburg, PA
17105
1563383772 $20.00 www.trinitypress.com
Race And The Cosmos: An
Invitation To View The World Differently by Barbara A. Holmes (Associate
Professor of Ethics and African American Religious Studies, Memphis Theological
Seminary) is a compelling and insightful metaphysical study of cosmology, race,
and what it means to awaken to full liberation. From the eternal quest for
finding meaning to one's life, to interpreting what it truly is to be reasonable
and tolerant in the grand scheme of things, Race And The Cosmos is offers a new
and recommended look at the basic philosophies that shape our lives and how we
view the universe.
The Odyssey Of Enlightenment
Berthold Madhukar
Thompson
Wisdom Editions
204 West Lake Street, Suite C, Mt. Shasta, CA
96067
1931254095 $19.00 1-888-267-4446
The Odyssey Of Enlightenment:
Rare Interviews With Enlightened Teachers Of Our Time by Berthold Madhukar
Thompson is a selection of interviews with twelve East Indian spiritual
teachers, each of whom are widely respected for their enlightened wisdom. Hindu
guidance to life-long harmony, the full depth of the immortal truth within
Socrates' classic phrase "Know thyself," as well as insights on the meaning of
destiny and God's will round out this superbly presented anthology of spiritual
acumen. Essentially a chronicle of Thompson's personal quest for spiritual
meaning and eternal truths, The Odyssey Of Enlightenment is a welcome and highly
recommended contribution to Eastern Spirituality reference collections and Hindu
Studies supplemental reading lists.
Secret Of The Vajra World
Reginald
A. Ray
Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Horticultural Hall
300
Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115-4544
157062917X $18.95
shambhala.com
Secret Of The Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism Of Tibet by
Reginald A. Ray (Professor of Buddhist Studies, Naropa University, Boulder,
Colorado) is the second and final volume of "The World of Tantric Buddhism"
series from Shambhala Publications. A straightforward presentation written in
plain accessible terms for readers at all Buddhist studies and experience
levels, Secret Of The Vajra World deftly explores the foundations of Vajrayana,
the essence of Tantric Buddhist philosophies, and applications of Buddhist
principles and insights to one's own personal life, bodhisattvas in the world,
and a great deal more. Secret Of The Vajra Worlds is a very welcome, superbly
presented, truly comprehensive introduction focusing upon a unique and
profoundly important aspect of Buddhist spiritual practice.
The Afterlife
Of Trees
Brian Bartlett
McGill-Queen's University Press
3430 McTavish
Street, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 1X9
0773519106 $14.95
1-800-387-0141
The Afterlife Of Trees is a selection of Brian Bartlett's
memorable, free-verse poems that carry both the pedantic nuance of events of
everyday life, and a personal respect for the majesty and grace of the soul that
trees, birds, and nature have given to humankind. The Afterlife Of Trees is
recommended as an insightful body of work reflecting communion with nature amid
a culture choked with the clutter of material things. "To a red-eyed vireo:
Minimalist of the tree tops / more than a scrap of dawn chorus, all day / you
ask and answer one question / in two-to-four-note phrases, you're drawl's
inflections / reversing, a rise giving way to a fall, a fall / to a rise / ask,
answer / ask answer / Is it fair to say you sound like a lecturer who won't /
move on to the next point, / or some weary barker / slowly going mad with the
monotony of selling?"
Imagining Rhetoric
Janet Carey Eldred and Peter
Mortensen
University of Pittsburgh Press
Eureka Building, Fifth Floor,
3400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
0822941821 $34.95
1-412-383-2456
Collaboratively researched and written by Janet Carey
Eldred (Associate Professor of English, University of Kentucky) and Peter
Mortensen (Associate Professor of English, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign), Imagining Rhetoric: Composing Women Of The Early United
States is a scholarly and revealing study of how women's writing developed in
the era between the American Revolution and the Civil War. A truly fascinating
look at how educated women used the power of the pen to promote civic goals, as
well as how a new female readership emerged and changed the as yet fledgling
book industry, Imagining Rhetoric is a highly recommended contribution to
Women's Studies and Literary History reference collections and academic reading
lists.
The Coast Of Maine Book
Nancy English
Berkshire House
Publishers
480 Pleasant St., Suite 5, Lee, Massachusetts 01238
1581570589
$18.95 1-800-321-8526
Now in an expanded and thoroughly updated fifth
edition, The Coast Of Maine Book by Nancy English is an excellent and thorough
guide for tourists and travelers who want to explore the fun, wonder, and
richness to be found along the coast of Maine. An excellent, comprehensive,
highly recommended informational resource, The Coast Of Maine Book offers
everything from tidal zones and bicycling advice, to a host of recommended
lodging and dining places, historic buildings, tips on what to expect from the
weather, seasonal events, shopping, and much more.
Is It A Date Or Just
Coffee?
Mo Brownsey
Alyson Publications
Box 4371, Los Angeles, CA
90078-4371
1555837271 $13.95 www.alyson.com
Mo Brownsey's Is It A Date
Or Just Coffee?: The Gay Girl's Guide To Dating, Sex, And Romance is a practical
guide, laced with wry humor, about countless problems, confusing questions, and
delicate issues of lesbian dating, sex, and romance. From distinguishing between
potential lovers and just plain friends, to monogamy vs. polyamory, to the
special hurdles of the bisexual and the bi-curious, Is It A Date Or Just Coffee?
doesn't have the answers to everything but does have opinions, suggestions, and
simple advice for just about anything. Is It A Date Or Just Coffee is a highly
recommended, gently-mannered, tongue-in-cheek guidebook written by a gay gal,
for gay gals.
Susan Bethany
Reviewer
Taylor's Bookshelf
Soldier Of The Legion
Marshall S.
Thomas
Timberwolf Press
202 N. Allen St., Suite A, Allen, TX
75013
1587520397 $14.95 TimberwolfPress.com
Book one of the "Beta 3"
series, Soldier Of The Legion by Marshall S. Thomas is an epic science fiction
novel. Set in the far-flung future, Soldier Of The Legion chronicles the
struggles of a brave squad of Legionnaires who must fight to survive horrific
battles against a corrupt, slave-raiding empire -- and a far worse force of
inhumans. A perilous, exciting space saga, Soldier Of The Legion is
enthusiastically recommended reading for fans of the science fiction
action/adventure genre.
Flying The Alaska Wild
Mort Mason
Voyageur
Press
123 North Second Street, PO Box 338, Stillwater, MN 55082
0896585891
$19.95 www.voyageurpress.com
Flying The Alaska Wild: The Adventures And
Misadventures Of An Alaska Bush Pilot by Mort Mason (who has flown more than
18,000 hours over the Alaskan outback bush country) is an amazing collection of
true stories from the airborne adventures of an Alaska Bush pilot, who met
challenges ranging from dealing with dangerous headwinds, to the hazards of ice
on the plane, to participating in search and rescue missions, and more. From
cover to cover, Flying The Alaska Wild is an exhilarating and highly recommended
account of an exciting occupation that demands steady nerves and a courageous
heart.
U.S. Army Survival Handbook
Department of the Army
The Lyons
Press
PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437
1585745561 $14.95
1-800-243-0495
Originally prepared and issued by the United States
Department of the Army, the U.S. Army Survival Handbook is a definitive guide to
survival in a variety of outdoors locations and circumstances, especially when
one has access to few tools or personal gear. A standard issue survival manual
for U.S. Special Operations Forces and air force pilots, the U.S. Army Survival
Handbook is also a first-rate reference and highly recommended primer for
campers, hikers, travelers, and anyone else who ventures into unknown territory.
From avoiding and dealing with dangerous snakes, fish, and insects to direction
finding to survival techniques for cold weather, open sea and seashores, desert,
and more, U.S. Army Survival Handbook is a definitive resource that can (and
should) be a part of every family and community reference library
collection.
Music In Ancient Israel/Palestine
Joachim Braun
William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids,
Michigan 49503
0802844774 $30.00 www.eerdmans.com
Music In Ancient
Israel/Palestine: Archaeological, Written, And Comparative Sources by Israeli
musicologist Joachim Braun is the first truly comprehensive study of the musical
culture in Israel/Palestine in antiquity, as interpreted from the available
archaeological record. An engrossing, informative, academically endowed
exploration of the crafting of musical instruments and the evolution of musical
expression as understood through evidence, as well as scholarly hypothesis
stretching from the stone age to the Hellenistic-Roman period, Music In Ancient
Israel/Palestine is a singularly amazing and very strongly recommended analysis
which is a welcome an valued contribution to both Music History and Mideast
Archaeology reference shelves and supplemental reading lists.
Carl B.
Stokes And The Rise of Black Political Power
Leonard N. Moore
University
of Illinois Press
1325 South Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820
0252027604
$34.95 www.press.uillinois.edu
Carl B. Stokes And The Rise Of Black
Political Power by Leonard N. Moore (Assistant Professor of History and Director
of the African and African American Studies Program, Louisiana State University)
is a meticulous portrayal of Mayor Carl Stokes of Cleveland and the impact his
tenure has had on local and national African-American politics. Individual
chapters address a range of issues such as "the making of a mayor"; black
capitalism; internal political power struggles; and much, much more. A
well-researched and scholarly examination of executive government in microcosm
in general, and its reflections in the broader scope of African-American
politics in particular, Carl B. Stokes And The Rise Of Black Political Power is
a welcome and highly recommended addition to academic Black Studies and
Political Science reference collections and reading lists.
Palestinian
Religious Terrorism
Yonah Alexander
Transnational Publishers
410 Saw
Mill River Road, Ardsley, NY 10502
157105247X $40.00 1-914-693-5100
1-914-693-4430 (fax)
Palestinian Religious Terrorism: Hamas And Islamic
Jihad by Yonah Alexander (Senior Fellow and Director, International Center for
Terrorism Studies, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and Director,
Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies) is a straightforward,
authoritative presentation of the history, composition, organization, and
workings of the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas. Palestinian Religious
Terrorism covers everything from the Hamas official charter, ideology, tactics,
and time line, to copies of selected Hamas documents including military
communiques and press releases. A highly factual book written to present solid
information with academic objectivity on a ruthless and deadly terrorist
organization, Palestinian Religious Terrorism is an invaluable and timely
contribution to the growing library of International Terrorist reference
materials.
By Reef And Palm
Louis Becke
Dixon-Price
Publishing
9105 Leprechaun Lane, Kingston, WA 98346
1929516215 $11.99
www.dixonprice.com
Originally in the late 1890s, By Reef And Palm is
Australian author Louis Becke's thoroughly amusing collection of short-story
"yarns" about daily life in the Pacific Islands that has been brought out in a
new addition by Dixon-Price Publishing and will aptly serve to introduce a whole
new generation of readers to the work of a man reputed in his lifetime to be the
"Kipling of the Pacific". Reflecting a lawless era in candid, nothing-is-sacred
prose, By Reef And Palm is a unique, captivating, enthusiastically recommended
compendium of short stories showcasing the trials and travails a century gone
"Paradise".
Experiencing Dominion
Thomas W. Gallant
University of
Notre Dame Press
310 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556
0268028028 $19.00
undpress.nd.edu
Experiencing Dominion: Culture, Identity, And Power In
The British Mediterranean by Thomas W. Gallant (Professor of Greek History,
University of Florida) is scholarly and historical survey revealing the
anthropological, cultural, and social ramifications of British influence on
Greece and the Ionian Islands, especially during the nineteenth century. From
legal cases of slander, to the conflicts of religion and identity, and much
more, Experiencing Dominion is an evenhanded and highly recommended study of
historical events offering a wealth of thoughtful insights into the evolution of
Greek and Ionian society.
Government's Greatest Achievements
Paul C.
Light
The Brookings Institution Press
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
0815706049 $19.95 www.brookings.edu
Government's
Greatest Achievements: From Civil Rights To Homeland Security by Paul C. Light
(Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution) is an informed
history and celebration showcasing twenty-five of the American government's
policy successes from 1944 to 1999. Documenting and highlighting the eradication
of polio, the rebuilding of Europe after World War II, the strides made forward
against racial discrimination, the reduction of poverty among the elderly,
expanding the right to vote, and much, much more, Government's Greatest
Achievements is an extraordinary, uplifting read which offers striking and
sometimes even surprising facts. A very strongly recommended addition to both
academic and community library Political Science and American History
collections, Government's Greatest Achievements is a welcome antidote to the
usual drumbeat of media criticism and endemic public
skepticism.
Gentleman Spies
John Fisher
Sutton Publishing
Limited
260 Fifth Avnue, New York, NY 10001
0750926988 $29.95
1-800-462-6420
Gentleman Spies: Intelligence Agents In The British Empire
And Beyond by historian John Fisher is a truly fascinating and informative look
at political undermining between nations since before the first world war. The
evolution of a British foreign intelligence bureau, originally called SIS and
which later evolved into the legendary MI6, whose mission was to specifically
provide vital information about activities stemming from the furthest corners of
the British empire, is presented with incredible anecdotal tales of intrigue and
deceit. An amazing, deftly researched look at the cutthroat machinations of
international history, Gentleman Spies is totally absorbing reading from first
page to last!
Submerged
Daniel Lenihan
Newmarket Press
18 East
48th Street, New York, NY 10017
1557045054 $25.95
www.newmarketpress.com
Submerged: Adventures Of America's Most Elite
Underwater Archaeology Team by professional diver and archaeologist Daniel
Lenihan is the amazing story of the award-winning Submerged Cultural Resources
Unit team of the U.S. National Park Service. Lenihan guides the reader on an
incredible tour of the team's finds and the archaeological work accomplished
from 1975 down to the present day. In their bid to retrieve the bodies of
drowned divers, recover lost artifacts, survey Isle Royale shipwrecks in Lake
Superior, and so much more, Submerged provides archaeology students and the
non-specialist general reader with an interest in underwater archaeology an
incredible window into real-life archaeological adventures.
Gettysburg:
An Alternate History
Peter G. Tsouras
Greenhill Books
c/o Stackpole
Books
5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
1853674826 $18.95
www.greenhillbooks.com
Gettysburg: An Alternate History is an epic saga
by Peter G. Tsouras that explores what might have happened if a few twists of
fate had significantly altered the course of the battle at Gettysburg, and
therefore the American Civil War. Written with close heed to the actual events,
Gettysburg: An Alternate History is a fascinating "what-if" journey of
speculative fancy, often told through the eyes of soldiers struggling to survive
the bloody battlefield. Gettysburg: An Alternate History is especially
recommended reading for Civil War buffs, and will have great appeal for
"Alternate Universe" science fiction fans as well.
John
Taylor
Reviewer
Whelan's Bookshelf
Governance.com
Elaine Ciulla Kamarck and
Joseph S. Nye Jr., editors
Brookings Institution Press
1775 Massachusetts
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036
0815702175 $18.95
www.brookings.edu
Collaboratively compiled and edited by Elaine Ciulla
Kamarck (Lecturer in Public Policy , John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University) and Joseph S. Nye Jr. (Dean, Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University), Governance.com: Democracy In The Information Age is a
selection of impressive scholarly essays focusing how leaps and bounds in modern
technology and the Internet are directly affecting American governmental policy
and performance. Exploring the link between power and information, and drawing
broad conclusions and implications from mounting evidence, Governance.com offers
an informed and informative look into the near future, and where the
democratization of information is ultimately leading.
Narrating The
Arctic
Michael Bravo and Sverker Sorlin, editors
Science History
Publications
c/o Watson Publishing International
PO Box 1390, Nantucket,
MA 02554-1390
088135385X $39.95 www.shpusa.com
Collaboratively
compiled and edited by Michael Bravo (Science and Development Research Group,
Sott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University) and Sverker Sorlin (Chair
of Environmental History at Umea University, Sweden), Narrating The Arctic: A
Cultural History Of Nordic Scientific Practices is an outstanding collection of
seminal essays by erudite authors concerning the history of arctic exploration.
From Inuit exploratory ventures, to conflicting claims of history, to the Danish
arctic research of eighty years ago, to Swedish arctic travels of a hundred and
fifty years ago, Narrating The Arctic is a vivid, intense examination and
scholarly analysis of the historical quest to venture onto, and discover more
about, the very top of the world.
Is Nothing Sacred?
Don
Cupitt
Fordham University Press
2546 Belmont Avenue, University Box L,
Bronx, NY 10458-5172
0823222039 $40.00 1-800-247-6553
Is Nothing
Sacred?: The Non-Realist Philosophy of Religion by educator and philosopher Don
Cupitt is an outstanding selection of informative and challenging essays
examining a "non-realist" interpretation of Christian doctrine. Persuasively
arguing for a "kingdom" version of Christianity that resonates more strongly
with the original Jewish Jesus Christ, Professor Cupitt draws his philosophy and
theology in part from the wisdom of Kant and Kierkegaard, while also accepting
insights from Buddhism and the contemporary philosopher Richard Rorty. Is
Nothing Sacred? is a provocative, intriguing discussion, and highly recommended
for academic philosophy, theology, and Christian Studies collections and
supplemental reading lists.
A Season Of Grief
Ann Dawson
Ave Maria
Press
PO Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556
0877939780 $12.95
www.avemariapress.com
A Season Of Grief: A Comforting Companion For
Difficult Days by newspaper columnist Ann Dawson is a compilation of quotes,
reflections, prayers, poems, and heartfelt sentiment compiled for the specific
purpose of offering hope and comfort to those surviving difficult loss. A Season
Of Grief is very highly recommended as being an unusually thoughtful collection,
with each vignette or passage brief enough for quick browsing, and a volume that
presents a variety of differing, yet sincere, perspectives on dealing with the
loss of a loved one.
Thomas G. Whelan
Reviewer
James A.
Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278
Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
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